Town slashes $125,000 of budget
Published on February 5th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - Town officials and penny-pinchers alike got worse news than anticipated when Gov. Mitt Romney’s ax finally chopped off the 9.37 percent piece of local aid pie last week. The state aid cut amounted to $433,903 dollars lopped off state aid to Stoneham, and, according to Town Accountant Ron Florino, a $240,000 state mandate for Stoneham’s portion of a Charter School fee.
While the cuts are expected to be painful in the current year, both town and school officials believed they can avoid layoffs for FY03.
The total amount adds up to $673,000 that needs to be extracted from the FY03 budget, and the Board of Selectmen voted to use a combination of cuts and capital overlay from the Town Assessors office.
“We’re already six months into the fiscal year, and state has now substantially reduced our state aid for the second time,” said an exasperated Florino, who stated that the town of Stoneham suffered a total reduction in state aid of 10.92 percent ($991,820) for the year.
According to Florino, the Assessors office has uncovered $600,000 in additional funds that will help cushion this year’s blow. The Board of Selectmen used this information to help decide the best course of emergency hole plugging in the suddenly swiss cheese-like budget.
The Selectmen were presented with three separate options by Town Adminstrator Dave Berry, and also concocted a few of their own. But the governing body eventually decided on equal parts cuts and savings as $125,000 will be pared from both the town and school budgets. The remaining $424,659 will come from the overlay surplus with $175,341 added to the savings fund for the bear-ish FY04 budget.
Selectmen Cosmo Ciccarello suggested using all of the overlay to replace the phantom aid promises from the state, and suggested worrying about any future crisis after averting the present one.
“Why don’t we use all of the overlay now if we don’t know how much we’re going to get hit next year,” said Ciccarello.
Ciccarello changed his stance when he received assurances from both the schools (the School Committee and School Administration were in attendance) and the town that the $125,000 cuts wouldn’t result in any layoffs.
“It’s one thing to deal in numbers, but it’s a whole other thing to deal with somebody’s life and their livelihood,” said Ciccarello speaking of layoffs. “These are individuals we’re talking about...I was here in 1990 when we had to send people out the door, and it wasn’t good.”
“I’m not talking attrition...I’m talking layoffs,” said Ciccarello.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Kennedy voiced support for a second option that would have sliced $150,000 from each of the current budgets, and left roughly $225,000 in savings. According to Kennedy, a tougher cut would have shown the people that the town was realistic about the tough financial road ahead.
“I think a little greater cut, and placing a little more in reserve, would show the people that we’re tightening our belt and facing this crisis,” said Kennedy.
School Committee Chairman Dan Moynihan admitted that both the second option and the third option (cutting $200,000 from both budgets with a savings of $325,000) come with a heavy price.
“If either of the latter two options were chosen, the school department would endure staff cuts,” said Moynihan. “We feel like we could absorb $125,000 without layoffs, but anymore than that would be something we really couldn’t deal with.”
Kennedy, when faced with the possible layoff of teacher assistants and part-time school staff, also threw his support toward the $125,000 cut.
Selectman Charlie Smith also supported cutting less from the budget, and dipping into the overlay surplus.
“It’s much easier to make cuts in the beginning of the year than in the middle of the year,” said Smith. “We don’t want to do anything that could affect the kids at school midway through the year.”
Finance and Advisory Board Chairman Jim Grayson also agreed with the $125,000 cuts, and commissioned a bleak financial forecast.
“I concur with Tony about conserving money in the overlay and stabilization funds,” said Grayson. “According to the governor, next year is going five times worse, and I don’t think the year after is going to be that much easier.”
Berry planned to meet with the department heads to itemize the cuts during this week, and hoped that the cuts could be met without greatly altering service or personnel. Berry then planned on presenting possible cuts to the Board as quickly as possible.
The School Committee also planned to convene this Thursday, and also formulate a plan for their cuts.
The Board of Selectmen and the School Committee also talked turkey about the looming spectre of FY04.
“This is like talking about being at the stern or the bow of a sinking ship,” said Selectman Bob Sweeney. “Eventually there’s going to be layoffs.”
The town still faces a $3-4 million deficit in FY04, and Superintendent of Stoneham schools Dr. Joseph Connolly outlined a troubling school budget. Connolly detailed a $1.3 million budget increase in FY04 that is completely mandated by the state and uncontrollable by the school administration. Included in the $1.3 million is a $234,000 raise in health insurance fees, $498,000 in special education, and $387,000 to re-open the Robin Hood and Colonial Park Schools next year.
“We fully intend to work with the town as closely as we can, but these budget problems couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Connolly. “If we have to level fund and eliminate the $1.3 million in our budget, the money is going to have to come from personnel...We have no other choice.”
Berry has directed each of his departments to prepare a level funded budget based on this year’s cuts, but the Selectmen prompted Berry to consider requiring a 5 percent cut to each town budget.
Kennedy suggested looking into selling property owned by the town, getting creative with the renting and leasing of municipal property, and possibly raising fees within the town to help soften the economic blow. Kennedy also queried Town Planner Mike Gallerani on the possibility of winning more grants for the town of Stoneham.
“We may not be able to completely wipe out the $4 million, but we might be able to cut it in half,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy also reminded audience members of the FY04 budget public hearing scheduled for March 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stoneham Town Hall.
Ciccarello also requested during the budget discussion that Town Counsel William Solomon look into the legality of the state mandating a Charter School fee.
“I was under the impression that the state was required to fund anything that they mandated,” said Ciccarello, who suggested writing a joint letter from the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen to the State Auditor’s Office.
Ciccarello was referring to the $240,000 taken off the top from state aid for the 33 Stoneham children who attend either the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School or the Somerville Charter School.
“This seems like a private school being funded like a public school...it’s not right,” said Ciccarello. “Soon you’ll have the Catholic schools coming to us looking for a handout.”
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