Deja vu, all over again

Well the House Ways and Means budget was released yesterday.  Until all the figures are released, I will be cautiously optimistic and state that it better news than hope for.  Will need to see the full details, however, expect to see some changes in money figures at Town Meeting.  The actual budget booklet I believe has gone to press all ready.

Everyone needs to remember also that this is the proposed budget for the House.  It still must be passed by the House and accepted by the Senate.

Yes it looks like more money.  No we still do not have enough to meet all requests.  No this isn't going to change my opinion of most matters.  A number of cuts were made to some things which were done solely to provide for an operating budget which could provide a realistic level of services.  Before money gets put back into departmental operating budgets, restoring money to several non-department areas needs to be looked at.

Even with the potential extra money, the town would still be well below the amounts requested by departments.  Remember the word potential.  The only figures I have seen are for chapter 70 aid and unrestricted local aid.  There are several other components of aid not yet released which could impact the amount, and most likely in a negative way.  

Past budgets have usually seen an increase in state and county charges where the H&W has given more money then the governor.  Also, more often than note when the H&W increase chapter 70 aid and unrestricted aid, it has decreased the amounts of the other components. 

Why you may ask?  Well this is an election year.  Increasing chapter 70 (schools) and unrestricted local aid allows your reps. to tout how they support those items.  Despite the fact that they have in the past cut other items to do so.  

Quite frankly I get a big kick out of the various designations.  In reality, the vast majority of the money is thrown into the same pot for use.  It would take days to explain the way the money is cut up and the reasons for it.  The digest version is there are several small components of aid which are designated as "pass through" amounts.  This means that money must go to a specific purpose.  The rest of it is "do what you want to with it" money.

As a point of reference, assuming the preliminary information released on the proposed House Ways and Means budget holds up, we would still be getting over $1,000,000.00 less in state aid in FY 2013 than we did in FY 2009.

Money folks, like it or not, is what drives all aspects of what goes on it town.

Worried about crime, see what happens if you cut the staffing at the police department.  Need an ambulance, see how quickly is it going to get there if there isn't the staff to run both ambulances.  Concerned about class room sizes, see what happens if you cut more deeply into the school budget (and depending on who you speak with, see what is going to happen with the cut all ready being made to the request).

I was looking forward to a quiet few weeks until Town Meeting.  Not so likely now.

This could turn into a free for all.  It shouldn't, but ...

It will be extremely interesting to see the proposals that will be made.

I think we as a town should give some thought to pushing town meeting back several weeks to a month.  It certainly would help everyone in making decisions and give some extra time to wait on state aid figures.

Why hasn't it been you may ask?  The date is set in the special act from 1930 something.  It gets talked about from time to time.  When state aid is plush, it isn't an issue.  But for most of the last decade the state aid figures have been the difference at times between bare bones and no bone.  

Part of the resistance seems to be people are reluctant to hold a town meeting in late May or early June.  After all, we don't want to run the risk of having it fall on a too good a weather day.

Every three or four years though something like this happens.  The "this" in this case is what is potentially (I emphasize the word "potentially" small windfall).  All indications prior to the release of the H&W proposed budget pointed to no increase over the governor's budget.

It seems H&W is using higher estimated revenue figures than the governor.  Hopefully the estimate is good.  Don't need a repeat of several years ago when cuts ended up being made after the first quarter.

anyway, I thought I would get off the topic of the last few days and move on to something else.  The release of the H&W budget seemed to fit the something else nicely.

Next year is a tough year financially.  I know this has been said year after year to the point some people simply do not believe it anymore.  Heck, I can understand that.  In the last decade, each succeeding year has me waiting longer and longer into the budget process to actually come to any firm conclusions, because it is taking longer and longer to get enough information to make informed decisions.

You want an ideal world, for a budget scenario, at least one that would work a whole lot smoother?  Here is one.  All departments must meet with the Selectmen and the Finance Committee no later than the 7th of February of each year to review proposed budgets.  By the 15th of each year the selectmen are required to submit their recommended budget to the finance committee for review. 

Admittedly this is a very partial scenario, however, it would work a heck of a lot better than what we got going on now.  Let's face it, work for the next fiscal year's budget should start on the July 1st of each year.  There is no reason why a proposed budget cannot be ready any any department by December 31st.  

Every department should be able to reasonably estimate its need costs to go into the next fiscal year providing level services.  Extras, additional services, equipment purchases, improvements, etc. can be set out in a separate category.

There is no reason that town generated revenue cannot be determined, with a reasonable degree of certainty by December 31st.  The only unknowns at that point would be the actual state aid figures.  Budgets could be dealt with, subject to those figures being released.  

The problem we have is there is no set policy.  We have a carrot and stick approach, and quite frankly, it isn't a very big stick.  

If the charter commission becomes a reality, hopefully this will be an area where some time is spent to reform what simply isn't adequate (yes, I know only in my opinion it isn't).

Anyway, absent some new item popping up, I plan on addressing some specific articles for the annual town meeting next, and since the actual warrant for the special closed last Friday, some of those will be addressed too.