To the Editor:

For those who are just tuning in to the fact the Wareham has a serious financial problem, here is some background. At the beginning of this year’s budget discussion the Finance Committee, Board of Selectmen and the Town Administrator were discussing a $2.5 million deficit. That may have confused some people, who mistakenly thought that meant the Town was spending more than it brings in. The Town must have a balanced budget. Deficit spending may be allowable in the federal government, but not in municipal government.

The $2.5 million gap was the difference between the department budgets, the school budget and our fixed costs (“expenses”) and what we can reasonably expect to have in revenue (“income”). Those were not department wish lists. Those were level service budgets. A level service budget means we get the same service as last year, but it is going to cost more due to increases in expenses. A level funded budget means you get the same money as last year, but that won’t buy as much since expenses usually increase.

When the Finance Committee met with the Town Administrator and department heads this year to review the department budgets (as we have done in the past few years) we didn’t ask what they would like to see happen, how they could improve efficiency, or how they could bring in more revenue for the town (as we have asked in past years). Instead, we asked them to justify their reason for existence. What state and federal programs, regulations and mandates were covered by each department or required for the town as a whole. We did this, so that when the Administration is forced to make the most painful cuts, they understand where the cuts need to happen.

The first obligation of a government is public safety; the next is to provide education. The rest exists to collect money to provide those services, to enforce state and federal regulations (i.e. public health, inspectional services, elections, census/reporting), and lastly then to provide whatever else we as a community deem important.

We hear a lot of people say we need to cut the fat. Because they have some minor issue, maybe they had to wait at town hall, or saw a municipal worker drinking coffee and talking on a cell phone, or a school bus almost empty, they think there is waste in the government. There probably is - but that is minor. That is inefficiency or management issues. It’s not the same as “budgetary fat.”

Starting this year we are looking at a $9.3 million deficit over the next five years. $9,300,000. Nine point three million dollars.

Which is made all the more difficult because we have already cut so much. Past leaders recognized that an override would not be a popular proposal, so instead the town cut programs, personnel and departments. While some of that, including the use of technology, has improved our efficiency, the public needs to know that the town has been cutting back for several years. To balance this year’s budget, solving the problem means losing 45 employees and significantly impacts the library and council on aging.

Here is what Wareham has lost:

Recreation

Lifeguards

Library – (used to be operational six days a week)

Police Force – significantly reduced

Fire Department (yes, the town had one, once)

Personnel Director

Procurement Agent

Town Planner

Town Engineer

Visiting Nurse

Municipal Trash pickup

Cemetery Department

Tree and Park Department

NOTE: Municipal maintenance will be down to eight workers – that’s eight people to handle all of our roads, grass cutting, catch basin clean outs, beach cleaning, cemetery maintenance and support the snow plowing efforts.

This list doesn’t include the cuts that have occurred on the school side. What is even sadder is that we spend almost no money on taking care of our town owned properties or putting money into savings which makes our financial position that much more precarious.

Maybe we can cut the rest of the “fat”, but to do so we are digging through muscle and the blade is dangerously close to the bone.

Marilyn C. Donahue
Vice-chair, Wareham Finance Committee