by Worth Robbins ·
Monday, April 5, 2010
“The budget is balanced,” Town Administrator Tim Bragan announced at a combined meeting of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee, and Finance Committee (so-called “tri-board”) on Saturday morning, April 3. Evolving under a veil of secrecy for the past several weeks as negotiations proceeded with several bargaining units, the fiscal 2011 budget a week earlier showed a deficit of more than $150,000, with several departmental requests not fully met. Selectmen and Finance Committee meetings were punctuated with lengthy executive sessions, and budget questions were deflected with comments like “we can’t talk about that yet.” Bragan said Saturday that all contracts have been settled, and all are scheduled for ratification votes this week, after which full details of the contracts and their impact on the budget will be made public.
An updated Omnibus Budget recap, provided by Finance Director Lorraine Leonard on Saturday, showed projected expenses in balance with projected revenues, with contract settlements factored in. Major changes from the week-earlier recap included an increase in expectation for Local Aid (from the state), a significant reduction in the growth of benefits and insurance costs, virtually full funding for departmental budgets at levels equal to this year’s appropriations, and additional funding to accommodate contract settlements. According to Bragan, additional funding for the library to meet the Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) is also included.
A similar recap, provided in October before the budget process began, showed a deficit of $320,424, with three major assumptions: Local Aid would decline by a further 15 percent from fiscal 2010 levels, benefits and insurance costs would increase by 7 percent, and department budgets would stay flat. A revised recap in early February, as department negotiations with the Finance Committee (FinCom) were in full swing, reflected an improved deficit projection of $162,332, with local aid forecast at a 10 percent reduction, but benefits and insurance costs inflated to a 10.9 percent increase.
In the new recap summarizing the balanced budget, Local Aid is now projected to decline by only 6 percent. In a joint statement on March 12 by the Ways and Means chairmen of the Massachusetts House and Senate, cities and towns were told to expect cuts of no more than 4 percent, but Bragan, Leonard, and the FinCom are skeptical of this commitment, and are maintaining the more conservative 6 percent assumption. The new Local Aid assumption represents an improvement of more than $350,000 from the October recap. If local aid is, in fact, reduced by only 4 percent, the improvement will be an additional $60,000.
The other significant change in the recap is the estimated cost of benefits and insurance. Projected to grow by 7 percent in October, and by 10.9 percent in February, the balanced budget reflects growth of only 1.6 percent, nearly $211,000 less than was forecast two months ago. Again, details of this change will not be available until after contracts have been ratified, but clearly this is a major factor in the newly balanced budget.
Details of capital and other warrant articles were not discussed, but Leonard reported that $410,225 of the $506,185 of capital warrant articles would be funded from stabilization. The remaining projects have payback in two years, justifying being funded by “raise and appropriate” requests. The full picture of capital planning and spending will be included in the report being prepared by Bragan and the FinCom, and will be reported in the Press as soon as it is available.
With all present having had an opportunity to comment on the good budget news, and with accolades generously passed around for the hard work and cooperation that went into the accomplishment, the meeting was about to adjourn when FinCom Chairman Bob Thurston asked the Board of Selectmen to reconsider the order of articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Planning Board’s articles had been moved at their request to the front of the warrant, rather than the end where they have traditionally been. Thurston and FinCom member George McKenna challenged that decision, arguing that Town Meeting is mostly about making financial decisions about operations of the town, and that therefore those articles should come first. Selectwoman Lucy Wallace, citing her years on the Planning Board and the frustration of seeing planning and zoning articles considered by only a handful of voters at the end of a long day, said that she thought it was time to see if Planning Board articles would get a better hearing early in the meeting. After brief discussion, the selectmen were unanimous in their decision to leave the Planning Board articles in their new, earlier position.
Thurston then turned to the order of the financial articles, and in particular, placement of an article to move free cash to stabilization, which had been positioned after the Omnibus Budget. He asked why that article had been moved from its traditional location, before the Omnibus Budget, arguing that it should remain there because it is, in effect, “taking care of last year’s business” before moving on to future spending. Wallace explained that the selectmen had thought the article would be better understood grouped with other articles dealing with capital, including an article establishing as policy the practice of transferring free cash to stabilization. After brief argument, in which Thurston characterized the selectmen’s rationale as “having no validity,” the selectmen agreed by 4-1 vote (Selectwoman Marie Sobalvarro voting no) to accede to FinCom’s wishes to have the free cash transfer article appear before the Omibus Budget.
The warrant is scheduled to be signed by the Board of Selectmen at its meeting Tuesday, April 6.