To balance the budget…Town jobs may be cut
Published on February 20th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA-–Town Administrator David Berry told Selectmen last week that Stoneham should spend $53,520,860 in fiscal 2003 to best provide for the people under a balanced budget.
All the dirty words are on the table as Stoneham officials struggle to balance the town budget in tough economic times. Berry is considering increasing employee insurance costs and freezing salaries, and Superintendent Joseph Connelly may be forced to cut teachers.
“My philosophy is to avoid, as much as possible, layoffs,” Berry said.
His budget cuts $928,405 in personnel and operating department budgets and draws on the Stabilization Account, the Overlay Account and a lawsuit settlement. No jobs or open positions are cut on the municipal side. The municipal budget would increase around 4.75 percent, including some “modest across the board salary increases,” as Berry describes in his budget introduction.
However, a similar 4.76 percent decline in the public schools budget may cost jobs. The school budget under Berry’s proposal would be $21,146,847.
“We may be looking at staff reductions,” Connelly said.
Connelly has met with all his administrators and asked them to go back over their budget figures to find any further reductions. A school budget meeting is scheduled for March 7.
“We want to find the least harmful reductions,” Connelly said.
Connelly and the School Committee have emphasized that cutting teachers is the most harmful reduction. But there is a $600,000 gap between what the schools need to maintain 2002 curricula and what town officials say Stoneham can afford.
Aside from the annual pie-splitting between municipal and school budgets, some town officials criticize the use of one-time funds to fund ongoing expenses. Berry’s proposal would use $380,000 from the Overlay surplus, money left over in excess of the amount of property tax remaining to be collected or abated for the year; $600,000 from the Stabilization or rainy day account, leaving the account at $1,200,000; and $68,481 from the RESCO trash collection lawsuit in which Stoneham was a successful plaintiff.
“If you want to call the budget balanced OK, but we shouldn’t be using these funds, especially while we’re hiring for vacant positions like the Town Planner and Assistant Building Inspector,” said Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello.
Berry stuck to his guns and stood behind the advice of the Finance Board.
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