By JIM BUTLER

Ralph Hennessy’s first budget proposal as executive director of the England Authority forecasts General Fund revenues and expenses totaling $14 million each.

To reach that figure a revenue infusion of $2.6 million from prior years will be required.

A public hearing to receive comment on the proposal will be held Monday, May 22 in the Authority board room on Arnold Drive. The budget can be viewed at Hennessy’s office or on the Authority website.

Hennessy joined England in December. The budget he inherited for the current fiscal includes projected use of about $1.1 in prior years’ earnings.

The authority’s operation on the former England AFB is two fold — land based and air based.

Aeronautical revenue for the upcoming fiscal year is projected at $1.7 million, up from $1.2 million, and non-aeronautical at $10.3 million, down about $700,000.

Those revenues and the funds transfer amount to a 9.5 percent revenue hike year-to-year.

On the expenses side payroll – salary, wage, fringe benefits- will rise 24 percent to $3.4 million.

That’s not, however, a giant leap in existing payroll.

Hennessy’s plans include three slots not filled in the existing budget and seven new ones.

Total spending for them, some at 75 percent of the year, is about $$345,000 of the budgeted $700,000 in payroll cost increase.

Change in existing payroll is, ballpark, about 3 percent or a little under per slot, with a couple apparently reduced as turnover occurs.

The budget proposal expects spending decreases in two categories — Oak Wing Golf Course, down 7.7 percent to $1.6 million, and operating transfer to capital projects, down 18 percent to $1.5 million.

The Capital Fund, fed by grants, dedicated charges and transfers, will receive, and spend, $45.1 million, almost all on the air side.