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Town council plans ahead to combat cuts in state aid |
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Friday, 16 October 2009 |
By ANDREW MARTIN
RICHMOND - The Town Council approved changes to its current budget to plan ahead for cuts in state aid.
The council, at its meeting Oct. 6, was acting on recommendations from the town Finance Board. The board put together a list of ways to minimize the impact of a projected $203,000 loss.
Council Vice President Henry R. Oppenheimer explained that he and the board’s chairman, James Trecker, wanted this information out to the public as soon as possible. They both want the residents aware of what is going on and what the town is doing to combat cuts to state aid.
Another catalyst for getting this information out is that Oppenheimer and council President B. Joseph Reddish III are meeting with Chariho Regional School District officials and members of the Charlestown and Hopkinton councils this weekend.
Oppenheimer said he wants to begin discussing the School Committee’s agreement that it would amend its budget if the towns suffered cuts to state aid.
“[We need to] begin communication with the school district that we see good potential for a significant loss of state aid and we’d like them to share in this loss,” Oppenheimer said. He added that Chariho makes up 80 percent of the town’s total budget. If the district covered that 80 percent, the town could pick up the rest.
The town would cover its losses through the Finance Board’s aforementioned recommended budget adjustments, the biggest of which is a $30,000 reduction to the police department’s budget, an amount suggested by the chief of police.
Oppenheimer explained that the $30,000 will not actually be “lost” because the department will recover the money through federal stimulus funding. He said that the police receive revenue anytime an officer uses his or her car to assist in the ongoing Route 138 rehabilitation project.
The town will achieve a total savings of about $57,000 with these budget changes.
As Oppenheimer said in reference to the budget changes, “The problem is this is just a dreadful year.” All said funds will be moved into a line item dubbed “state aid cuts.”
Fellow councilor Gerard P. Curran made it clear that the town could be looking at a substantial increase to taxes for next year’s budget. “This could get out of control pretty quickly and we could look at double-digit tax increases,” he explained.
Curran made it clear that such an increase isn’t guaranteed, but it’s a possibility if something does not change. The letter from the Finance Board shared his viewpoint and mentioned an “uncomfortable position” of being as much as $599,000 short for the fiscal year 2010-11 budget.
“[That’s] a number that cannot be covered simply by raising taxes by the permissible 4.5 percent,” the letter outlined. “It appears to us (the Finance Board) that the council will have to start making citizens aware of the potential severity of this situation so that a tax increase doesn’t come as an unforeseen shock.”
The letter goes on to state that the time is now to make the school district understand that there is no more money to be had and that the citizens cannot bear any further increases. It also states that – like the council and Finance Board – it’s up to Chariho to spend “hundreds of hours” going line by line to find where cuts can be made.
The letter then states that while the Chariho credo is “it’s all about the kids,” it’s time to say “it’s a lot about the taxpayers, who are tapped out.” |
