If your July tax bill made you wince, you're not alone — some Greenwich homeowners saw increases as high as 15%. Now the town's budget committee is rewriting the rules for how every department spends money, starting with a Tuesday meeting.

Board of Estimate & Taxation (BET) Chair David Weisbrod says the jump came from two things landing at once: the state-mandated property revaluation and the new $542.3 million FY2027 budget taking effect. The Greenwich Republican Town Committee puts the average increase at 8%, though the town hasn't independently confirmed that figure.

New guidelines issued Friday tell department heads to justify spending against what they actually spent last year — not just tack on a modest annual increase. As the memo put it, departments "purely targeting a low annual increase cannot solve for today's inflation and evolving community needs." The guidelines also call for reviewing non-tax revenue, targeting investments that pay off long-term, and using real data to drive staffing decisions.

The town spends roughly $10 million annually on third-party utilities across departments, but has no dedicated role to standardize equipment or capture energy savings — something the guidelines flag as an opportunity. Separately, the BET's Audit Committee is hunting for redundant software subscriptions, and the memo is open to piloting AI for administrative tasks.

The committee will consider a $20,050 donation to fund programming at Nathaniel Witherell nursing home — music nights, holiday parties, outings, and yes, an ice cream truck. There's also an executive session on a pending lawsuit against the town, and a report on $38,039 in donations toward a Wallace Center renovation.

The meeting is open to the public Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Town Hall, 101 Field Point Road. It's also the committee's last scheduled session before September, making it the final chance to shape next year's budget strategy before fall.