By Scott MacKeen
Contributor
5/15/08
Concerns about town budget cuts sprang up at the Monday, May 12, Town Meeting session, as members and officials once again mulled over the implications of last week’s override rejection.
A motion was made to reopen warrant articles 14 and 15 for a re-vote. Both articles were voted on at the May 8 meeting and passed under the non-contingent budget plan.
Article 14 would have included a 2.75 percent wage increase for non-union town employees if passed, but it was voted down on May 8.
Article 15, an appropriation for public safety funds, would have appropriated an additional $300,000, recommended by the Warrant Committee but not included in the non-contingent budget. As a result of this decision police and fire departments will leave vacant positions unfilled and reallocate staff to cover budget shortfalls.
“This is a matter of fundamental fairness to our town employees,” said member Ann White, also a member of the Personnel Board, which oversees the provisions of Chapter 13 (non-union) workers who would be impacted by the article 14 budget cuts.
White said that this would be the only chance for key town workers to get a pay raise for FY 09.
Part of the concern over the article 15 vote involves the medical funds of injured firefighter Tony Pickens. Selectmen recommended that $170,000 be taken out of Pickens’ town health care funding, with $100,000 going to schools and the remainder to be transferred into salary and wages for firefighters.
Town officials are counting on state legislation to secure bonds to cover Pickens’ care. Only about $150,000 will remain in the Pickens fund, but there is no guarantee that legislation will pass before that money runs out, according to the Warrant Committee.
Selectmen Chair Kathryn Fagan expressed concerns about how quickly such legislation could actually pass.
“We are now paying private home health care workers (no longer in-patient hospital costs), so bills must be paid off much quicker,” she said. “We’re looking to really move quickly to push this through... so that we’ll know where we stand going forward for (an override) next year.”
The motion to re-open these articles was ultimately voted down.
The meeting also opened debate on article 36, an appropriation for school funds. The non-contingent budget leaves the school’s budget nearly $2 million below what was requested by the School Committee. Despite the vote on May 8, some members remained concerned with the decision not to fully fund the schools.
Also at issue was whether to approve a FY 09 budget for the Blue Hills Regional Technical School with an increase of $650,000, or 23 percent over the current year’s budget appropriation from the town due to the enrollment of eight new students from Milton.
Warrant Committee Chair Kathleen Conlon said that such a dramatic increase was not feasible given the nature of the town’s current economic state, adding that the committee had not received satisfactory responses to some of their questions about the school’s budget numbers at an April 2 meeting.
“The budget we requested is vital,” said Joseph Ciccolo, superintendent-director of Blue Hills. “Students are staying here and graduating (at a 93 percent rate) and making the best use of the materials made possible by the budget gains.”
Town meeting members debated whether to side with the school or the Warrant Committee. Disapproving the budget would require four of the nine towns that make up the Blue Hills School District. Holbrook had already voted against the budget but Avon, Canton and Westwood supported it.
One member called potential cuts to Blue Hills “extraordinarily painful” but said that there are going to be cuts across the board and that requesting such a high increase for one school would not make sense.
“All we are asking for is for (Blue Hills) to take another look at the budget in these tough times and maybe come up with some savings,” Conlon said.
Members agreed with the Warrant Committee and rejected the budget by a vote of 124 to 66.
Town Meeting wrapped up its deliberations on on May 13. A more detailed article will follow next week