Officials struggle with Phillipston budget
PHILLIPSTON – “In the budget I had started putting together, there was money for training, and money for capital investments and a lot of other things we were going to be able to do this year; right now, those are all on hold.”
That was the prelude Phillipston Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Flynn provided to last week’s joint remote meeting of the town’s Selectboard and Finance Committee, held to figure out just how to proceed with the municipal budget for FY21. The new fiscal year is supposed to begin July 1 but, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many municipal budgets may not be enacted until after that date.
Flynn explained that the state is allowing cities and towns, after July 1, to operate under a so-called one-twelfth budget — based on FY20 figures — until an overall spending package can be approved for the entire fiscal year.
“There are limits on that,” he explained. “It has to include the school district’s assessment. It would have to include money for pension and insurances, and similar assessments. It has to include debt service. We would not be able to use money from stabilization or free cash. And we can’t spend money on capital items or salary increases.”
Because of the local economic impact of the pandemic, as well as its effect on state revenues — and, thus, state aid — Flynn presented officials with an FY21 budget reflecting a slight increase of about $60,000, or about 1.5 percent, from the current year’s budget of just over $3.8 million. Much of the increase comes from a projected hike of $100,000 in the town’s share of Narragansett Regional School District budget.
Flynn estimated a loss of revenues from a variety of sources, due to the coronavirus, amounting to $235,000.
He stressed that these are preliminary figures only, which are subject to change following further deliberations by the Selectboard and Finance Committee.
Flynn noted that his FY21 budget plan did not include $93,000 in Proposition 2 ½ override monies approved by the town last year for additional funds for the Narragansett Regional School District.
“The $93,053 is shown here as a negative number,” Flynn said. “That’s because it was made clear to me that there were strong forces at work who were going to try to reverse the override, to try to put through an underride, and it was likely that money would not be available. So, that money is not used in any of my options.”
“Has the state given any direction at all of when they think they might tell us what they would reduce state funding by?” asked Finance Committee member Brian Nason.
“No,” Flynn responded. “What they have shared with us is all very dramatic information. The Senate chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has shared that (the state) is four to six billion dollars in deficit in revenues for this year. He said this is the worst year since 1946, when they started keeping records.
“Expect that there will be major hits to local revenues, to local education funds, and to regional transportation.”
Flynn said he would not consider an across-the-board cut in municipal pay.
“I don’t mind cutting 5 percent on expenses,” he said. “We can make that work; we stretch a little harder and we don’t get as much done as we want. But I don’t I don’t like cutting peoples’ wages. Especially because it’s only going to happen on the town side. The school department is not going to cut their employees’ wages 5 percent, we all know that.
“They’re going to say, ‘CBA — collective bargaining agreement — we can’t cut anybody’s wages over here. Sorry. So, nobody on the school side gets hurt when you do that; it’s only the town side that gets hurt, and it never catches up after that.”
Town officials will attempt to hammer down details of a budget proposal in time to present it to voters at the annual town meeting, currently scheduled for Monday, June 16.
The annual town election is set for Monday, June 22. Three positions — a one-year seat on the Board of Health, tax collector, and a three-year seat on the Narragansett Regional School Committee — have no candidates. There is but a single candidate for each of the remaining elective offices. A question on the ballot seeks to change the post of tax collector from an elected to an appointed position.
