Milton Times, May 1, 2008: “Frustrations Mark Budget Preparations”
Budget frustrations flared at the April 22 Warrant Committee meeting as town officials responded to the pressures of a rapidly approaching Town Meeting. Attending the meeting at the Warrant Committee’s invitation were Selectmen and School Committee members. Much political backtracking took place, as leaders conceded an override probably wouldn’t pass this year and insisted that budget numbers previously submitted to ecommittee did not reflect actual operational realties.
The meeting was originally called, Warrant Committee Chair Katherine Conlon confirmed, to discuss projected level-service funding figures for fiscal years 2010 and 2011. The discussion was set to clarify details of the town’s long-standing commitment to a multi-year budget planning approach. But the School Committee upstaged the planned agenda by deciding it would not support an override this year, despite the school system’s fiscal needs.
“This is really an about face,” Conlon said Wednesday night.
“Characterize it however you want. It’s our current position,” shot back School Committee Chair Beirne Lovely.
“But the warrant is in print, and we’ve recommended a contingent budget on the basis of information we received,” Conlon objected. “You’ve changed your position.”
“That’s our prerogative,” Lovely declared.
Lovely noted “uniform doubt” among elected officials that an override would succeed this year. Echoing concerns voiced by Selectmen over the last few weeks, he pointed to the current lack of enthusiasm among residents for tax increases and the absence of leadership to press an override battle.
To take an override to the town and lose “would be extremely detrimental going forward,” Lovely said. He admitted his perception was “a political conclusion.” He also expressed his reluctance to base future school budget projections on current funding levels.
“If this is projected forward and called level service, it doesn’t serve the students of Milton well,” he said. School Committee member Chris Huban agreed. “We don’t want to be hamstrung with the numbers being used in the contingent budget.”
Lovely said that the School Committee was, instead, prepared to “struggle through this year” and the inevitable cutbacks. The budget cuts would involve movement of some school children to different districts, he said, as well as some increased class sizes. He claimed changes in the school administration and new perspective would allow the committee to “work through the summer, rip through the budget and start again.” As of Wednesday night, the School Committee had not formally voted on its recommendation of an override. When pressed for and official thumbs up or down position, Lovely said the School Committee would vote on the override recommendation only if Selectmen did.
Selectmen took their turn at the table accompanied by Town Administrator Kevin Mearn. Chair Marion McEttrick described the bleak realities facing the town departments. “Every budget is very tight this year,” she said. “Too tight. People need to understand what the impact of a non-contingent budget would be” if there is no override.
Selectman Kathy Fagan underscored the point. “There really will be cuts and changes if there is no override,” she said. “But you can’t underestimate how much time it takes to educate people. The timing is not such that we can put it together over the next few weeks.”
In line with Lovely’s long-term approach, Fagan suggested a “nine month concerted effort to educate voters on why we need the money.”
Fire Chief Malcolm Larson was present to substantiate Selectman John Shield’s position, laid out at the April 17 selectmen meeting that the Fire Department budget reflected in the warrant would present public safety concerns. Warrant Committee members appeared particularly frustrated by the presentation.
Larson had endorsed the same budget in January, even in the face of what Warrant Committee members said were concerns that the numbers might be too low. Committee member James Conley recalled that he had directly addressed the point.
“I remember the meeting,” he said. “I literally asked ‘is there a public safety issue.'” He recalled that Larson had said he could work with the numbers. Larson answered Conley by saying he had thought at the time that there would be an override.
Conlon said the elected boards have known about the override recommendation for months. The position is reflected in the warrant, which went to press in early April. The committee, a group of appointed residents, is assigned the job of coming up with the annual operating budget on the basis of the information it receives.
“We’re not a political board,” Conlon explained after Wednesday’s tumultuous meeting. “We are appointed to take a financial view of things and make our recommendations on that basis.” But at this point, recommendations based on projections and a multi-year vision is “probably a moot issue,” she conceded.
“We have a crisis,” said committee member Leroy Walker.” There are problems with the way we fund services given the lack of our commercial tax base. The way to educate the town is to talk about multi-year budgets. We need to figure out how to start to make projections. Or we’re going to go through this every year.”
The Warrant Committee was considering a $6.1 million override, said to be enough for three years, but others doubted it was in fact enough.
Dawn Aberg 