(previous)
“We think that’s a fair number,” he said of the override. “It’s certainly not going to get us back to level services [of the current year]. But we think we will be able to maintain reasonable services. The town will remain the town we know.”
The override budget would be for approximately $75.8 million, according to the document. The Warrant Committee will also recommend to the May 4 Annual Town Meeting a non-contingent – or balanced – budget for around $72.5 million, slightly more than their original proposal due to a refiguring of health care costs, Hurley said.
The latest non-contingent budget would involve a slightly lesser cut to town departments, from the original 1.43 percent to a 1.06 percent cut from their current budgets. It would include laying off five police officers and five firefighters, closing an elementary school, shutting down the East Milton Library, eliminating yard-waste pickup and having half the streetlights in town go dark, Hurley said.
The current override budget would have two police and two fire personnel being cut, all schools would stay open and yard-waste pickups would continue. However, half the streetlights would still be turned off under an override scenario and the committee is unsure if the library could remain open.
The passage of an override would also put $150,000 into vehicle maintenance, something Hurley said has been “woefully under-funded” over the years. It would also give the police two new vehicles and a fingerprint scanner to replace the manual system, which he said very few communities still use.
Both budgets would put $50,000 into the stabilization fund, currently a $1 million “rainy day” account.
Neither budget would set-aside funds for future contract raises, which Hurley said departments would have to absorb into their budgets.
However, under the Warrant Committee’s proposal, departments could “bottom line” their budgets to allow for more flexible expenditures.
It would authorize departments to move freely between line items – such as salary and expenses – without a vote by Selectmen or a dipping into the town’s reserves if one line item is over-expended.
Selectman Chair Kathy Fagan supports the idea as long as it’s a one-year practice and is re-examined next year. “It gives departments that additional flexibility [to move funds] in a tough budget year,” she said.
Hurley said the town could be looking at a string of “light revenue” years and should “run on bare bones” as much as it can afford.
“We certainly don’t want to get an override [this year] and then come back next year for another override, because we know that’s not going to happen,” he said.
Fagan said the June ballot will give officials time to sort out different scenarios where federal stimulus money could come to the town.
The Selectmen will have until May 5 – the second night of Annual Town Meeting – to decide how much of an override to recommend to voters, Selectman John Shields said. He said the town will still be “scrambling” with its budgeting by then.
“We need to finalize these budgets by that second night [of Town Meeting],” he said.
According to the assessors’ office, the passage of a $3.3 million override would add $704 to the average tax bill, based on a home assessed at just over $520,000. Without an override, taxes are expected to increase by $344.
The town last passed an override in 2006, for the fiscal year 2007 budget. That was for a $2.4 million tax increase.
“It seems like we need one every three years,” Fagan said. “It’s the dues you pay for having a residential town.”

– Scott MacKeen