The nation’s economic woes have trickled down to the local level, and at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen, the selectmen voted to immediately freeze all town hiring and spending.
The move came after Town Administrator Tim Bragan reported, based on information from meetings at the State House, the possibility of local aid to cities and towns being cut by the state. He said he believes “the state won’t get through without making cuts in local aid.” He also noted a decrease in expected local revenues. “We are about $90,000 in the hole for 2010 as we speak,” he said.
In an interview Wednesday Bragan further explained that receipts for the current fiscal year are well below predicted levels, particularly the motor vehicle excise tax, which accounts for nearly 50 percent of all local receipts. Motor vehicle excise revenues for fiscal year 2008 were $741,536, he said, compared to the previous year’s $778,655. Estimates for fiscal year 2009 were $785,000, so the town is looking at a decrease of revenue in this area in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Another category that has seen a significant decrease, he said, is in fees for licenses and permits. Estimated totals for the current fiscal year are $190,000, but Bragan predicts the actual number will fall well below this total. He pointed out that these decreases mirror the slowdown across the country, with consumers purchasing fewer automobiles and taking on fewer construction and home-improvement projects.
At Tuesday’s meeting Bragan reported that Superintendent of Schools Thomas Jefferson has already frozen spending and that, if there were a significant reduction in state aid, “We will be looking at layoffs like we did in 2002.”
Chairman Leo Blair requested that town boards reach out to other town organizations to make reductions, and the selectmen directed Bragan to use restraint in spending.
Selectman Tim Clark suggested that the town consider using a debt exclusion to fulfill certain long-term obligations, like the town’s group insurance liability fund, over a fixed time period so they didn’t need to appropriate funds every year for those services, citing the example of an action taken by the town of Wellesley. He also suggested a pilot program that called for payment in lieu of taxes from nonprofit organizations in town. He suggested that the town make a formal request asking such organizations to “make contributions at varying levels.”
Bragan said he would send a letter to nonprofit organizations in town making such a request.
With the selectmen’s vote to freeze spending, the channels for town spending have become severely limited. Bragan explained Wednesday that formerly, department heads had the authority to open and approve purchase orders for spending. Now, the only people who are allowed to approve any spending of funds are Finance Director Lorraine Leonard and School Superintendent Thomas Jefferson. That applies to all spending, from big-ticket items like road resurfacing to daily-use items, like a ream of paper for the copy machine, he said.
As far as the hiring freeze goes, the selectmen have decided to address the town’s hiring needs on a case-by-case basis, Bragan said. They chose this as an alternative to a unilateral freeze on hiring due to some concerns about the staff level at the Department of Public Works, which currently stands at nine. That raises significant concerns as winter approaches along with the need for adequate snow-removal services.
“I don’t want to be the kind of town that sends out the plows only when there’s six inches of snow on the ground,” says Bragan.
With this in mind, Bragan said the selectmen are going to carefully consider their hiring options as they move forward, balancing the needs of the town with limited resources.
Note: Joe Hutchinson contributed to this article.
