Town Manager Presents $147 Million Balanced Budget

Andover Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski said that his recommended $147 million fiscal 2013 operating budget for the town will be balanced by seizing opportunities.

Stapczynski said that refinancing Andover’s debt, taking advantage of health reform and restructuring positions as employees retire will be among the measures taken to meet anticipated expenses.

However, he said that increasing state aid as well as slightly increasing local revenues, such as excise tax and building permits, also helped in balancing the budget, which represents a 2.3 increase from the fiscal 2012 operating budget.

The town manager’s recommended operating budget is $147,159,945, a nearly $3.3 million increase from the revised $143,880,322 fiscal 2012 budget. The town manager has not yet been able to review Andover Public Schools superintendent Marinel McGrath’s fiscal 2013 budget and details from it were not included in this budget.

In his recommended budget (see PDF), the town manager cites several different factors helping to balance the budget this year.

• Debt Service: Due to refinancing the town’s debt, total debt service for fiscal 2013 is expected to go down by 4.4 percent, a $527,000 drop from $12.1 million in fiscal 2012 to 11.6 million in fiscal 2013.
• Health Insurance: Taking advantage of new health reform legislation allowing the town to redesign plans without having to go into collective bargaining, the town may keep the health insurance increase, which has been a budget buster in recent years, down to 3 percent from last year.
• State Aid: The Town Manager is expecting the state to increase State Aid by 4.1 percent to $10.7 million, largely due to a $400,000 increase in education aid.
• Local Revenues: Increases in building activity, including permits from the building department, conservation department, zoning board of appeals and planning board, contributes to a 1.7 percent, or $155,000, increase in local revenue.

will cost $34.1 million in fiscal 2013, which represents a 2.6 percent increase from the year before. will cost $65.4 million, which represents a 3.3 percent increase.

This budget also includes funds for collective bargaining with the teacher’s union including contractual salary adjustments, longevity and step-related pay increases.