Town Meeting approves operating budget with drastic cuts
Town Meeting voters on Monday approved a $47 million operating budget that could close Town Hall on Fridays, does not fund several municipal positions, and may result in layoffs of more than 20 teachers.
"The fiscal 2013 budget has represented many hardships," said town Financial Analyst Derek Sullivan, who worked closely with former Town Administrator Mark Andrews on the budget before Andrews' departure in mid-April. "There was a multi-million dollar budget gap that needed to be closed, and that gap has been closed. And it's been closed because people worked together."
Sullivan stressed, however: "One thing is for certain: None of us are happy about this budget."
Town Hall is proposed to close on Fridays and stay open later on certain days of the week in an effort to save on utility costs, Sullivan explained. That, however, must still be OK'd with employees' unions before it is set in stone.
Among the items cut or otherwise not funded in next year's budget:
- A full-time position in the Board of Selectmen's office will not be funded.
- A proposed "personnel director" position will not be filled.
- A part-time position in the Town Planner's office will not be funded.
- A part-time position in Information Technology, currently unfilled, will remain unfilled.
- In the Police Department, a lieutenant's position and two patrol officers' positions will not be filled.
- The addition of six new seasonal police officers to the Police Department's summer patrol was not funded.
- A position in the Council on Aging will not be funded.
- The summer lifeguard program will not be funded.
Finance Committee Chair Frank Heath, in urging voters not to amend the budget numbers to remove money from departments and add it elsewhere, spoke of that committee's work in the budget process.
"The budget is proposed to us and we have to review it and determine if it's a sound budget. ... The question was, we have only 'x' amount of revenue, [and] how can we get to that number on the expenditure side," Heath explained. "We went through with great diligence. ... This budget has been thoroughly vetted. ... I would ask you to stand behind these numbers. These numbers are very painful."
A handful of attempts were still made, however, to amend the budget via reductions to wages in the town administrator's and town accountant's office, a reduction in funds for legal services, and a $40,000 reduction to the School Department's budget, among other measures. All proposals failed.
In proposing amendments, former-Selectman Jane Donahue said she'd hoped to retain summer police officers. Officials later explained that the budget for the summer patrolmen remained at last year's levels — meaning that six additional officers would not be added to the ranks this year, but the department would not lose summer officers.
Former-Selectman Brenda Eckstrom, who brought forth a number of budget changes, said she'd hoped to find the $40,000 necessary to keep Town Hall open on Fridays, noting that the town may not actually save that much on utility costs.
Selectmen Chair Steve Holmes urged voters not to approve changes in the budget.
"What I asked you to do is support the people who are in here every day, in the evenings, and on the weekends ... to make it work," Holmes said, referring to his remarks to voters when Town Meeting began last week. "To jump out of a seat and make cuts without actually knowing what those cuts are going to do I think is a dangerous road to go down."
The budget ultimately passed as proposed, though with a reduced amount for the town's contribution to Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School as voted last week. Click here for that story.
In an effort to ease the impact of the budget cuts on the school side of the budget, the School Committee has proposed a Proposition 2½ override and four debt exclusions to help fill in the funding gaps.
Without approval of the override, the School Department will likely lose nearly 20 teachers and will need to reduce other staff positions and student activities. Town Meeting voters have not weighed in on that proposal yet, as it has not come up in the meeting's lottery system.
An override would increase property taxes above the 2½ percent annual cap on increases for an indefinite amount of time – or until voters pass an “under-ride” to stop the tax increase. A debt exclusion would also increases property taxes above the annual 2½ percent cap, but for a fixed period of time.
With no debate early in the evening on Monday, voters paved the way for a $110,000 debt exclusion to fund repairs to the Wareham High School gym roof. Last week, voters did the same for a $341,000 debt exclusion for educational materials.
Town Meeting cannot alone approve the Proposition 2½ measures. There are three things that must happen in order for the override or any of the debt exclusions to ultimately take effect.
- Town Meeting must authorize the town treasurer to "borrow" the sum of money requested in the override or debt exclusion, to be paid through the increased property taxes collected.
- The Board of Selectmen must vote to put the override or debt exclusion(s) on a town-wide election ballot so the electorate can decide whether it wants the property tax increase.
- The measure(s) must be approved by voters at the ballot.
Still on the Town Meeting docket are debt exclusions to fund school buses and a feasibility study for the renovation of Minot Forest Elementary.
Other town budget articles — including a transfer of money to a "stabilization fund," a type of savings account — have not yet been addressed by voters.
Town Meeting will reconvene on Tuesday, May 1, at 7 p.m. in the Wareham High School auditorium.
