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Warrant Committee Chair Tom Hurley said officials will ask Town Meeting in May to use an additional $100,000 from free cash to cover the remainder of the state-aid cut to this year’s budget.
But he said the rest of the free cash, currently $470,000, has to go toward covering a snow-and-ice deficit that has already reached $425,000.
“There’s really no leeway here. We have to make these cuts,” he said. “We’re not going to have any free cash left to use [to make up the state-aid loss] because we have to use it for snow and ice. Our budget is now out of balance by $390,000 and we have to balance that somewhere.”
The vote means the School Department will cut around $133,000 from its current budget; the Police Department will lose $37,000; the Fire Department, $26,000; and the Department of Public Works, $33,000 – a total of $290,000 in department cuts.
Diane Agostino, a Precinct 8 voter from Ridgewood Road, said she worries most about cutting additional funds to the Fire Department.
According to Fire Chief Malcolm Larson, the department hasn’t had money for new equipment for four or five years and has at times recently had to operate under a 10-man staff minimum.
Firefighters outside Milton High School prior to Town Meeting protested the $26,000 cut to the department.
Larson said the cut means the department will operate with a 10-man staff for one-third of the time. Under that scenario, the engine at fire headquarters – the first responder for Milton Hospital, Milton High School, Pierce School, Glover School, Milton Academy and St. Mary of the Hills – is taken out of service due to the lack of staff.
Selectmen Chair Kathy Fagan said that situation has already occurred on occasion since October, when officials started pushing for cost savings.
“Next year it looks like we’ll be at a 10-man minimum permanently, maybe at times even at nine,” added Larson.
Agostino suggested other departments absorb a larger portion of current-year cuts, but Larson said he couldn’t support that scenario.
“I can’t in good conscience sit across from the school superintendent and police chief, and expect them to make these cuts, which will be very painful for them,” he said.
According to Fagan, the Police Department will not hire for a vacant position and will reduce some employee hours to save on its portion of the cut.
School Committee Vice Chair Lynda-Lee Sheridan said the School Department will save by not hiring for two midyear retirements, and will cut additional funds in teacher aides and professional development.
School Building Savings
Town Meeting also accepted an article authorizing the School Committee to enter a contract exceeding three years with an energy-savings firm.
The vote was needed because state law prohibits municipalities from entering contracts over three years without a vote from the governing body.
School officials estimate around $5 million can be saved in energy costs over 10 years. The contract would require a $600,000 payment over four years, which would be paid out of the cost savings.
School Committee Chair Beirne Lovely said he is assured the cost will not exceed the potential savings and there is a clause to void the contract if it does.
Officials are not set on a company but will begin soliciting bids, according to Assistant Superintendent Paul Hilton.
The Override Question
Meanwhile, looking ahead to next year was Sen. Brian Joyce, who used the term “economic tsunami” and alluded to the Great Depression when discussing the budget.
He called it “the greatest challenge we’ve faced as a government in a generation” and said Milton has it particularly tough because of its reliance on residential property taxes for over 90 percent of its revenue.
According to Joyce, the town is set to lose 8 percent, around $771,000, of its state aid if the governor’s initial budget proposal – which assumes increased revenue from a meals/hotel tax hike – passes the Legislature. But he said state aid could be cut as high as $1.2 million if those new taxes are not approved. In addition to the loss in state aid, Hurley said the town can expect a $600,000 drop in local receipts.
That has led town officials to prepare for a worst-case scenario where they would ask for a $1.3 million override just to have the same budget. That would not cover increased costs to bring current services into next year, something for which school officials alone are asking $1.3 million.
Hurley said taxpayers can already expect their property-tax bills to increase an average of $344 next year without an override; each additional million for an override would add $116 to the average bill.
“That means $694 more for a $2.5 million override and $775 for a $3.6 million override,” Hurley explained in a budget presentation.
He said the Warrant Committee will meet all day Saturday, March 7, to come up with a first-draft fiscal year 2010 budget. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the Council on Aging, 10 Walnut St.