A slimmer, deficit-free fiscal 2021 budget is headed to Fall Town Meeting following votes by the Select Board Tuesday night to adjust revenues and expenditures for the coming year.
In the new budget, revenues exceed expenditures by approximately $100,000, leaving the town with a small surplus. As reported in last week’s Press, the new balance is achieved by several adjustments that were recommended by the Budget Working Group and the Finance Committee. These include:
- Reducing the town’s contribution to municipal employee and retiree health plan payments for a savings of $138,000
- Reducing the school budget by $122,000, which is $100,000 less than originally planned
- Eliminating a new police cruiser and some police overtime for a savings of $60,000
- Adding $200,000 from the Stabilization Fund to the General Fund
Because the state has guaranteed that the town’s unrestricted government and school aid will total approximately $4 million, the same as last year’s state aid, board members agreed that cuts to the tree warden budget ($10,000) and merit pay for nonunion municipal employees ($26,000) were no longer necessary. In addition, the town can also set aside plans to reduce its annual contribution to its other post-retirement employee benefits (OPEB) fund from $500,000 to $425,000.
And finally, reducing the amount the schools are expected to cut has the effect of freeing $100,000 for other uses in a school year full of uncertainty.
Members of the five-member board voted unanimously for every one of these adjustments, but there was disagreement on the amount set aside for merit pay increases. Member Kara Minar said that at a time when so many people had lost jobs, awarding merit increases was inappropriate. She suggested the amount be reduced by 25%.
But Town Administrator Tim Bragan argued for keeping the full amount in the budget. Fiscal 2021 is the second year of the merit pay program, which replaced a system that awarded pay increases based on seniority. The contracts of unionized town employees continue to provide both step and cost of living increases each year, he noted. “You have already made the unanimous decision to [increase] their insurance payments…and now … you’re going to take this group of people and make them pay even more? I just can’t buy it.” If the full $26,000 is awarded, he said, the impact on taxpayers would be 2 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.
When it came time to vote, board members voted 4-0 to keep the full amount, with Minar abstaining.
The budget changes approved Tuesday will next appear as an article on the warrant for Fall Town Meeting, this time without the $320,000 override that sank the original fiscal 2021 omnibus budget in June
