The Select Board and Finance Committee have agreed to a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year that dodges an override by cutting town department and school budgets, drawing on free cash, and deferring some expenses until fiscal 2021.
According to a worksheet provided to the Press by Town Administrator Tim Bragan Tuesday, spending for town services and schools for the coming fiscal year will, if approved, total $29.3 million on revenues of $29.4 million, leaving an estimated surplus of $69,064. (See table)
At their meeting March 20 in upper Town Hall, Select Board members voted unanimously to accept the budget that FinCom had recommended in a March 5 email to the board, which FinCom Chair Don Ludwig had characterized as a “road map” to a balanced budget.
Getting to that result involved some painful cutting, some sleight of hand, and a bit of luck. At the request of Bragan and a vote of FinCom, the schools were asked to cut $150,000 from their original request, which they have now done (see story on page one). Town departments sliced another $165,000 from the total by reducing spending and dropping or moving to next year a number of small warrant articles. The initial purchase of trash bags for the SMART program, for example, was cut by $15,000. Purchase of a $37,500 police cruiser was deferred to next year and a $28,000 Parks and Recreation Commission request that the town pay for lifeguards at the beach was dropped. Badly needed computer upgrades in Town Hall offices will be paid for with fiscal 2018 free cash, last year’s excess revenue.
The town also caught a couple of lucky breaks. The cost of health insurance for town employees in fiscal 2020 is $90,000 lower than the original estimate, and the cost of sending Harvard students to Montachusett Regional Vocational High School will be $10,000 lower next year.
Still, next year’s budget is $1.8 million or 6.5 percent higher than the current fiscal 2019 budget. And because an unforecast chunk of expense for the new school will come due next year, excluded debt is going to jump from an earlier estimate of $1.2 million to $1.9 million, an increase that Bragan estimates will raise next year’s tax rate by an extra 60 cents per $1,000 of valuation.
Fiscal 2021 won’t be so easy, and an override will likely be needed, Bragan says. Excluded debt will jump by a whopping $3 million and new teacher and municipal worker contracts will likely drive up personnel costs.
But this week Bragan was busy assembling the warrant for 2019 Annual Town Meeting, which convenes May 4—papers stacked everywhere, a spreadsheet on his computer screen. The Select Board and FinCom have done their work. Now it’s up to Town Meeting. The Select Board proposes; Town Meeting disposes.
