By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
5/28/09
With just two weeks to go until voters decide the next fiscal year’s budget, town leaders are making a final push in favor of the Proposition 2 1/2 override budget.
Officials have said the larger of the two budgets proposed, contingent upon voters’ passage of a $3.42 million property tax increase, would spare the town from facing substantial layoffs and service cuts contained in the smaller budget.
“You have the best here in Milton. That is part of what we’re trying to preserve,” Selectmen Chair John Shields said at a meeting organized by school PTO leaders last week.
The meeting, held in the Pierce Middle School auditorium May 21, was a chance for the 25 or so residents who showed up to hear from town leaders what the impact of either budget would be to fiscal year 2010, which begins July 1.
According to town officials, both budget scenarios would require some degree of service cuts. Warrant Committee Chair Tom Hurley said the cuts are inevitable because of financial pressures from the state, and increased costs in town utilities and services.
Hurley said the biggest challenge going into this year’s deliberations, which started in the fall, has been trying to predict how much state aid the town can expect to receive.
“Of course we have the usual budget constraints” associated with Proposition 2 1/2, he said. “But this is the first year [in the five years] since I’ve been on the committee that we’ve been unable to predict with any degree of certainty what we’re going to get from the state.”
Despite the uncertainty, Town Administrator Kevin Mearn said town leaders have been quick to respond to changing budget scenarios from the state.
“I think you really have to applaud your government. They haven’t been sitting on their hands,” he said.
In March, the Warrant Committee finalized a draft of a budget that balances the town’s costs with its anticipated revenue. Hurley said the balanced budget, a $72.4 million spending package for the town, was built around two significant factors: an expected $1.2 million drop in state aid in the governor’s budget and a $600,000 expected drop in local receipts, much of which is the motor excise tax.
However, Hurley said the House and Senate budgets indicate the news on state aid may even be grimmer than originally thought.
The non-override budget amount would be around $5.9 million less than what department heads feel is needed to maintain current year services, Hurley explained. That has led many to a central question: What would the town look like with those types of cuts?
“The town will survive. But residents would notice an impact to the quality of life,” Hurley said.
However, Shields said he remains convinced that Milton is able to provide better services than most of its neighbors. He said property values have not dropped like most.
“We’ve done the right things in this town,” he said. “A lot of communities envy where we are. It’s a testament to the invests we’ve made.”
Having to operate under the balanced budget, the police and fire chiefs have said they would eliminate five officers each. Also, a fire station would close, yard-waste pickups would stop and half the streetlights would go dark.
The override would restore three police and three fire positions, keep the station open and allow yard-waste pickups to continue. However, half the streetlights would still be turned off.
Fire Chief Malcolm Larson said the firefighters agreed to forego pay increases for FY 10 due to their concerns about the impact of cuts on fire safety.
“I think they deserve a lot of credit,” he said.
The School Picture
Some of the top-earning school employees, including Superintendent Mary Gormley and Assistant Superintendent John Phelan, have also chosen to forego cost-of-living increases for FY 10 in order to shrink the budget gap.
Still, as School Committee Chair Lynda-Lee Sheridan said, the schools would be “just a shell” of themselves without the override.
“We’ve really tried to start this early and do it the right way,” she said, adding that school officials are trying to be “transparent” with the cuts they face.
School officials say the biggest challenge for them is trying to keep class sizes as low as possible and keeping teachers in front of students.
Under the balanced budget, school officials would be left having to plug a budget shortfall of up to $2.2 million, which is the cost associated with paying teacher raises and funding increased costs.
The School Department would receive $31.3 million under the balanced budget, roughly $300,000 less than the FY 09 budget.
“This is a very important point in the life of the Milton Public Schools,” said School Superintendent Mary Gormley.
The cuts without the override budget would include the elimination of 45 positions, 38 of them teachers, from the school system. Gormley said the result would be fewer course offerings and larger class sizes, affecting how students learn.
“You cannot increase student achievement if you’re decreasing teachers,” she said.
She added that two of the things she worries most about are having to implement study hall and cutting the requirements for students to graduate.
Also, French Immersion students would be reassigned to a new school next year under a plan to consolidate classrooms and save teaching positions. Gormley stressed that under the plan, students would remain in the reassigned elementary school until they finish that level of the French program.
Even with the larger budget, the School Department would be around $500,00 short of maintaining level services and would eliminate 12 positions, including seven teachers, Gormley said.
The Bottom Line
“It’s $30 a month to save your town,” said Julio Ricardo Varela, referring to the extra amount it would cost an average homeowner to pay for the override. Varela is the co-chair of the pro-override campaign Invest in Milton.
According to the assessors’ office, the passage of the $3.42 million override would add around $700 to the average property tax bill, based on a median home assessment of $530,000.
Without an override, taxes are expected to increase about $340, or roughly $360 less. The current bill is around $6,200.
The override referendum is set for a special election Monday, June 8. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close
at 8 p.m.