Do town officials have the right to cut deeply into departmental budgets without first getting Town Meeting approval? Town Administrator Tim Bragan and Finance Committee Chairman George McKenna say yes, as long as department heads voluntarily agree to cut spending as opposed to having their budgets cut without their consent. But a January 2009 Department of Revenue bulletin appears to disagree: “In general … in towns, any proposed reductions in annual budget or special purpose appropriations must be presented to and voted by town meeting.” Furthermore, it stipulates that such actions “should be taken at a special town meeting held before or within the annual [town meeting] so they can take effect immediately.”
The question arises in the wake of $350,000 in fiscal 2009 spending cuts that are being enacted to offset a drop in state aid and local receipts. The bulk of Harvard’s spending cuts went into effect Feb. 1 and Bragan contends that no Town Meeting vote is required because departmental budgets have not actually been cut. Instead, departments have been asked to reduce spending to help offset a substantial revenue shortfall and they have agreed to do so, which requires no Town Meeting approval, he said. If any department refused to make spending reductions, a Town Meeting vote would be required to reduce the amount appropriated for that department by last year’s Annual Town Meeting. But most department heads have agreed on the need to trim spending this year to offset revenue reductions and to prepare for what is expected to be a worsening revenue shortfall in fiscal 2010. One, however, the Board of Health, is refusing to agree to the spending reduction asked of it (see story).
McKenna said early last week that there could be a vote to amend the fiscal 2009 budget at Annual Town Meeting in May, but this week he agreed with Bragan that no such vote is required. “Budget reductions require a vote; spending reductions are voluntary,” McKenna said. He went on to say he sees no need to revote a budget if projected actual spending will be less than budgeted, but that it would helpful for the town to support the decision. “The key question is whether all the players accepted this option as the best solution to fund the deficit,” McKenna said. “I suppose that question remains unanswered, depending upon whom you talk to.
In any case, McKenna said, “It’s time to move beyond this issue and address the real problems we face in the 2010 budget.”
