Town Starts with $5.3 Million Deficit For FY 12

Throwing the thick budget book down on conference table, one selectman said that the town manager’s recommended budget was essentially meaningless. As he sat with finance and school officials at the first fiscal 2012 budget presentation on Wednesday, selectman Ted Teichert told Town Manager Reginald “Buzz” Stapczynski that giving a total budget number that was $5.3 million more than the town could afford was akin to giving him nothing.

"This number here doesn't mean anything," said Tiechert.

Stapczynski told a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee that priorities must be placed on budget items across all departments before cuts can be made to balance the budget.

However, he said that with challenges also come opportunities, such as restructuing how the town does things and exploring ways to regionalize services. He commented that he hopes there can be a healthy budget discussion without unproductive arguments around school versus town needs, which has happened in past years.

"I hope we can avoid that by eight weeks of really hard work," said Stapczynski. "We do have the time to get that squared away."

The Town Manager presented a $149.44 million budget, which represents a $9,483,562 increase, 6.8 percent jump, over last year’s budget. He said that $33.4 million makes up the town’s portion of the budget and and $66.2 million equals the school's portion. However, the town is only expecting to make $144.1 million  in reveneue in fiscal 2012, putting the town in a potential $5.3 million budget deficit.

Out of the deficit, the School Department carries the lion’s share of the overages, asking for a $66.2 million budget when they have only $61.6 million in anticipated revenue. The town is responsible for $654,470 of the deficit.

School Committee Chairman Dennis Forgue said that the school did not add any services from last year but is simply trying to maintain the same quality of education that was provided in the fiscal 2011 budget..

However, with rising health insurance costs, unfunded special education costs anticipated salary increases for the teacher’s union, the budget was inflated by $4,356,893, or 7.03 percent.

Stapczynski said that health insurance costs will be a budget buster for not just the schools but the whole town.

Teichert and other town officials agreed that they don’t want to see a budget this far out of reality. Teichert said he would rather have the town start with a $144 million budget, which is how much the town actually has to spend, and only add to the budget if the town discovers more revenue.

The Town Manager said that this is merely the start of an eight-week process where town officials will make tough decisions, including cuts, layoffs or restructuring, in order to balance the fiscal 2012 operating budget.

Selectmen and Finance Committee members will now begin meeting with individual departments to discuss their budgets. The joint group will meet next at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16 and plan to discuss the police budget, the library budget and capital projects.