New Proposed Budget
The Marlborough Board of Finance on a 4 to 2 vote approved a new town budget to be presented to the town for vote on June 1st.
By decreasing the Board of Finance’s undesignated reserve account from 7.5% to 7.4% the board was able to move $20,000 to the Board of Education budget and the remainder of the .1% reduction in the reserve account went to reducing the tax increase from 3.56% to 3.33%. The mill rate will increase .87 to 26.72.
Spending was not cut. Money held in reserve for un-forseen expenditures such as unforseen snow removal expenses was moved around on paper.
Roughly speaking the BOE budget is ~$7 Million out of a town budget of ~$20.9 Million. The $20,000 represents a .3% increase.
Public comment was held at the beginning of the meeting and at the end. The meeting was taped for community television, to be broad cast some time later this month. I’ll try and get a date for you. Hopefully it’ll be before the town vote on June 1st.
There was much discussion as to what the voters were trying to say during the May 11th vote. Some argued it was a vote for more education spending, others maintained it was a cry for lower taxes. About 25 private citizens attended the meeting. As did the 1st and 2nd Selectmen, Republican Town Chairman, the BOE Chairwoman and the entire School Administration staff. Several teachers were in attendance.
From what I observed during this meeting, the $20,000 added to the Board of Education budget will be enough to gain the support of the increased BOE funding advocates and change their votes from “no” to “yes”.
Will this swing vote be enough to overcome the “no” votes from the voters who feel that a 3.33% tax increase is still too high?
That is the question.
My gut reaction is to feel insulted. Regardless: the money saved by hiring a part time superintendent must be returned to taxpayers next year. I hope the BOE doesn’t misuse the funds and go on a spending spree in an effort validate all this craziness.
Absolutely appalling. The BOF vote should have taken place a week after the town vote, not 48 hours.
How could anyone have actually had enough time between Monday evening and Wednesday evening, to go over the budget with a fine-toothed comb, and question line items, ask for concessions, and trim the fat?
Instead, we get slight of hand accounting, allocating funds to the BOE from the snow removal fund, and a miniscule decrease in the overall tax INCREASE?! Is THAT what the majority of folks were asking for when we held up our hands and said, “The taxes are too high!”
No, it isn’t. The message was that the budget needed to be fully reviewed, not subjected to parlor tricks.
What is the most disturbing about the 4 members of the BOF voting to pay the BOE $20K in hush money is that they don’t even know what the $20K will be used for. Those 4 took the easy way out because they don’t want to deal with making a tough decision – shame on them!
This vote creates a frankenstein monster. The BOE has the blue-print…instill fear and spread misinformation, keep whining and you’ll get what you want. Disgusting!
As a former BOE member (1998 – 2003) I can understand the board’s desire to seek funds to maintain their current programs. They have worked hard to build a good school, both physically and academically, and I do not fault them for that. What does concern me is when certain people use fear tactics to get their way and to bully the BOF into granting funds. That only enrages the public and helps to place us where we are now which is in a “us vs them” atmosphere. The real problem here is that we are in a “perfect storm”. We are having the bills come due for many large projects, which the public voted for, and the economic climate will now not support those projects. The answer is not easy but it certainly is not the time to fight amongst ourselves. It is time to pull together and work to make the best of the situation. To quote two great Americans… “If we do not hang together we will all hang seperately” (Nathan Hale) and “Why can’t we all just get along.” (Rodney King).
Ken:
Rodney King is NOT a “great American”
@Ken Hjulstrom
Ken, I agree completely that fear tactics are uncalled for.
What I’m asking the BOE, BOF, WPCA, and the BOS to do is really look hard at the budget. This budget is status quo, ripe with wasteful spending.
The budget needs to be analyzed line by line and subjected to these questions:
1) Do we really need this, or can we make do without?
2) If we really need this, is there a cheaper alternative, or way of getting/doing it?
We need to be frugal. We need to move to generic brand shopping, versus name brand shopping.
And, I know very well how the government wastes money, being a business owner who sells to all of its forms. At the end of every single fiscal year, the calls start coming in. “I have to buy this and have it billed before such and such a date, or they’ll reduce our budget next year.”
In fact, I’ve actually had government customers call me and say, “Just ship me anything that equals $X. I don’t care what it is, but you have to bill me before such and such a date.” I turn that kind of business away, as it disgusts me.
Finally, I’m asking the townspeople and it’s servant government, to have some compassion and use some logic with regard to the sewer. It won’t reach any other phase, anytime soon. It’s quite probable that “Phase 1″ is it, and the 200+ people this is going to affect may leave town, lose their homes, their retirements, or be brought to a poverty level net income. I have to refinance my mortgage, for example, and spread it back out over a 30 year, as opposed to the 15 year I just refinanced to in 2007.
A forty-eight percent increase in the payments I’ll be forced to make to Marlborough since 2006 is completely ridiculous. It doesn’t make my house worth more to any prospective buyer, either. How the town government cannot see the financial impact their decisions are having on folks like me, is unfathomable.
Elected officials should not be getting a 3.75% pay raise mid-term. This, to me, is the height of arrogance and disregard to taxpayers. You knew what the salary was when you ran for office.
Is it a fair assessment that everyone who voted YES for the budget on Monday will vote YES again, because the overall tax amount remains the same? Or, are people going to change their vote from YES to NO because they believe taking money out of the reserve account is a not a good solution? I guess we will have to wait and see…
@Bill
Even more insulting — the job already pays $7,000 more than it did in 2005! If Mr. Black has his way with this budget, the position will be paying $9,552 more than it did in 2005. That’s a 15% pay increase in 4 years!
@Cut the Budget
The Rodney King thing was a joke!
In regards to changes in the way people will vote from May 11 to June 1st, I suspect there will be some flip flopping both ways. But how much is anyone’s guess.