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Notes provided by: Colleen Kirby Budget and Revenue
Task Force Meeting, 6pm Attendees: Diane Mahon, Charlie Lyons, John Bilafer, Kay Donovan, Rob Addelson, Jeff Thielman, Suzanne Owayda, Sue Sheffler, Al Tosti, Charlie Foskett, Joanne Gurry, Special Ed person-I didn't catch the name, Barbara Goodman, Nancy Galkowski, Brian Sullivan, Jim Marzilli, Marie Krepelka, Kathleen Dias, Jack Hurd, Bob Havern, Anne Paulsen, John Maher, Jay Kaufman, Rich Fanning and a very large public Diane Mahon started the meeting off saying that Arlington needs to balance its budget. She said we've cut so many services but we still have a deficit. As stated in Mr. Lyons handout, according to the Town Manager this structural deficit is a cumulative shortfall of $50M over five to seven years. This deficit is due to cuts in state aid, our lack of commercial tax revenues to make up for that cut and our inability to increase revenues through significant new growth. Although we cut our services across the board, reduced operating costs, increased employee contributions to benefit plans, and reduced our reserves we are still facing a structural deficit. Arlington can no longer afford to reduce its services and continue to deplete its reserves. We need to bring the town back to fiscal health and strength to meet the needs of the 21st century. Even so, our residents cannot carry this entire $50M burden so Charlie has come up with a less onerous plan. Charlie Lyons presented a working plan for the Board and Departments to discuss over the next few weeks to come up with a final version that all parties can work with. •He said this plan is a 5 year solution and not just to solve one year's deficit. •He said the town will need to decrease its spending over the next 5 years to fit within an average 4% growth, with the possible exception of this year's school budget which has already been presented with a 6% increase to make up for the drastic cuts the schools underwent and because of increased enrollment. •He also suggested the goal of a benefit cap of an average of 7% per year. And if there are increases greater than that this cap will bring both management and labor together so we don't break the town's piggy bank. •He strongly urged our legislators to work to restore the drastic state cuts which put Arlington into this difficult fiscal situation. He said that through his ties with officials in other towns and through his work with the Mass Municipal Association that there will be efforts to pressure the legislature to raise revenues and restore the cuts from FY2002. •He said that we'll need a $6M override (and yet we'll still need an increase in state aid as well to tide us over the next 5 years) but that we also need to promise the town that there will be no asking for another override for at least 5 years. He also mentioned that the town needs to promise that there will be no trash fees for at least 5 years. He pointed out that the last override was 15 years ago and back then the town promised there wouldn't be another one for at least 5 years. •His final point to the plan was that town meeting needs to pass a measure to increase abatements to those seniors in town (about 250 people) with low fixed incomes and high property taxes to make sure that this increase will not force anyone to have to move. Charlie Lyons also presented a detailed statewide perspective on Governor Romney's cuts from FY2002 levels. Arlington's Chap. 70 aid was cut 20%, lottery aid was cut 15% and Additional Assistance aid was cut 20.3%. Statewide we lost 6000 teachers even though enrollment has increased. 242/375 districts (64%) have lower Chap. 70 aid than in FY2002. 151/375 districts (40%) have 20% lower Chap. 70 aid than in FY2002. Arlington is in this category. 159 communities depend on Additional Assistance aid, only 73 communities took 20% cuts both in Additional Assistance and Chap. 70 aid and that includes Arlington. Arlington was particularly hurt hard as we received the 13th largest amount of Additional Assistance and all 12 communities who received more did not get a 20% cut in their aid. Plus there has been inflation. He explained that the state cut $500M from municipal aid and this needs to be given back to municipalities over the next 3 years. The legislature has agreed to restoring lottery funds but needs to restore the rest. Charlie Lyons suggested a November override as he thinks it will take that long to educate the residents and he would like to see what the legislature ends up deciding with the budget this year. John Maher advised that we must vote before September 15th for statutory reasons. Kay Donovan and Jeff Thielman pointed out that by law and by contract teachers must be sent pink slips by June 15th if they are to be let go and therefore they recommend that knowing whether the override passes or not is important before that date. Charlie seemed agreeable to this date if all members of the BoS, the School Committee and the Fin Com and Treasurer were agreeable. This will be discussed further in the next few weeks. The other obvious debateable point was about keeping the School Committee's proposed budget intact this year which is a 6% increase. Kay Donovan said she would support the goal of the caps but only if the current 6% budget was approved as this was the minimal budget they could present that would not cause undue harm to the schools. She pointed out that Arlington spends less than 251 other towns across the state and yet they are compared favorably to towns spending $3000 per pupil more. She said that the School budget has been extremely fiscally responsible. She also said she needed time to look the plan over more carefully. If necessary she thought we could have a September override as long as the town honors the current budget. Charlie Lyons seemed to think this could be worked out. John Bilafer likes the 5 year planning period for the override. Rep. Anne Paulsen said we do not know when we will get the final local aid figures, especially as they still haven't even named who is the new Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. She said that as the Governor is still talking about reducing taxes to 5% and as all other state departments have been taking huge cuts it is unlikely that we'll see any increases in local aid. She talked about how 40% of the staff at Environmental Protection and at Mental Health have been laid off. She said that the Governor and leadership haven't seemed to come to grips with the reality of the current revenue picture. Rep. Jay Kaufman brought up the concern about the Hancock decision which could cost up to $3Billion and it is not clear what it might do or not do for Arlington. It might even end up costing Arlington more funds. Rep. Kaufman thought that Mr. Lyons hopes for the State coming through is rosy as so far there is no plan for increasing revenues, many state departments are decimated and although the legislature is working hard on these problems we can't predict what the outcome will be. Rep. Jim Marzilli said that although education is a priority of this delegation, this year alone the state is facing a $400M shortfall just to keep services level. Last year the state used Rainy Day funds to make up its deficit but there isn't that amount left for this year. These are difficult fiscal times for the forseeable future. Sen. Bob Havern said that the Senate will make sure that the tax rate doesn't decrease to 5%. The Federal Government is saying that the state will need to come up with $500M cash to fund Medicaid this year and that will increase the state deficit to $900M this year. As it takes a lot of effort and communities to make any change in the local aid formula, this wouldn't happen before the budget is released this year. There is great uncertainty at the state level. He says that the legislature is working to return funding levels back to where they were and after that it will be time to talk about redistributing funds. Town Manager Brian Sullivan said that although new growth across the state averages 3% per year, here in Arlington we have grown only 0,9% per year over the past 4 years because we are such a built out community. Suzanne Owayda said we need budget stability over time so she likes this idea. She said we need to come up with a timeline. Charlie Foskett said that we do need fiscal stability for the town. He said that the last time we met the figure was $9M which is too much. He said that $6M is still a hefty figure and if we do that we need it to be a 5 year solution and to have some committment from our legislators to try and get us the state aid we need. The next Budget and Revenue Task Force meeting will be on February 14th at 6pm, 2nd Floor, Town Hall to continue this discussion. By this time both the BoS and the School Committee will have met in full to discuss this proposed plan. These are my notes taken to the best of my ability and are in no way officially sanctioned by any person or board. If you let me know of any errors I'll be glad to change them. Notes from Board of Selectpersons meeting, January 31, 2005, 7:15, 2nd floor Town Hall Diane Mahon, Charlie Lyons, Jack Hurd, Kathleen Dias Basically Mr. Lyons gave his presentation again to the Board of Selectpersons. The 4 legislators reiterated their statements. Sen. Bob Havern added that 23 senators want to eliminate Additional Assistance. He also wondered how we can fund what the Hancock decision may require and how we can keep up with the costs of Medicaid and an aging population. Rep. Kaufman spoke about the Governor's plan relying on false arithmetic. Rep. Paulsen said that they could help making sure we get our reimbursement money promised us under the School Building Assistance Plan. Rep. Marzilli expressed his frustration that as we live in one of the wealthier communities in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest nation in the world, we should be able to fund our residents' needs. Jack Hurd thanked the legislators for explaining all the big cuts in so many departments across the state. He thought Mr. Lyons' plan was a great start, a working document. Diane Mahon stressed the extraordinary sacrifices the town employees have made by paying more in benefits and working in understaffed departments. She also stressed the importance of working with Sen. Havern to get back the minimum aid formula which could bring in $300,000 for every $25 per pupil allotted. I stopped taking notes at this point although there were several comments during Public Participation which might be of interest. These are my notes taken to the best of my ability and are in no way officially sanctioned by any person or board. If you let me know of any errors I'll be glad to change them. SPOT
offers these notes as a service to the community. |
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