Great Barrington — The Finance Committee and Selectboard last night (March 28) put their final touches on the town’s 2017 operating and capital budgets, which are ready to go to May 9 Annual Town Meeting for final approval from voters, and and both boards voted in favor, though were split, on the Berkshire Hills Regional School District’s $25.2 million budget.
It is the Finance Committee that presents its recommended budget to Town Meeting, though the Selectboard also casts its vote in favor or against. About half of the town’s proposed $5.6 million capital budget will be offset by grants and state money.
The town’s $10.9 million operating budget remained largely as originally proposed, with a few heavily debated department requests adjusted in an attempt to keep property taxes from rising even more.
A controversial request by Town Manager Jennifer Tabakin, for a $64,000 consultant position to help with transitions and manage grant writing and grant administration was whittled down to $36,500 on the advice of Finance Committee Chair Michael Wise. But the first, earlier cut, had brought it down to $25,000.
Selectboard member Ed Abrahams wondered, “what are we not going to get for that $40,000 in savings,” and said “we can’t just look at numbers on a piece of paper.”
“What I heard,” he added, “was not that we don’t want those services, but we don’t want to spend the money…how do you know if $25,000 is enough?”
“I think it should be zero,” said Finance Committee member Walter “Buddy” Atwood III.
“Do we not need to plan for the future?” Abrahams said.
Selectboard Vice Chair Steve Bannon said $25,000 didn’t seem like enough to “get anything done.”
Selectboard Chair Sean Stanton said if more was needed during the year, the board could ask the Finance Committee for it.
That $36,500 for the consultant position was ultimately endorsed by both boards, with Stanton, Bailly, Atwood and Blauvelt voting against.
Selectboard member Dan Bailly has been shaking his head at rising expenses ever since budget season began. He looked at Abrahams. “I see it as numbers on paper,” Bailly said. “We know our tax rate will probably jump up about 75 cents, mostly because of the schools,” a 7 percent increase both this year and last, with Great Barrington paying 70 percent — or $14.5 million –– of the school budget with Stockbridge and West Stockbridge paying the rest.
Atwood worried that hotspot again last night. “We seem to be giving all the towns around here a break and I think we should get something for it,” he said. He further said he wanted to make sure there “was still a fire” lit under the Regional Agreement Amendment Committee (RAAC), a group from all three towns attempting to find a fair solution.
Stanton wondered if the town should vote down the school budget, as a “statement,” to “stoke the fire a bit,” because education “feels a little bit inequitable in the way it’s funded.”
And while the district has taken steps to offset escalating budgets, mostly because of rising insurance rates and less state aid, those steps take time since they require long-term strategies of changing the 3-town funding formula, school consolidation of some sort, and sharing services, to name just a few. Dillon, for instance, said last night he may share himself with the nearby Shaker Mountain District, where he is one of three finalists for superintendent.
Despite his warnings to Dillon last year over increasing school costs, and his “unpopular” support of teaching cuts this year, Wise said he was “coming around to reluctantly supporting the school budget, but we’ve got to do something about the big problems.” He said he thought the district was on the road to progress here.
He further said reducing school choice and tuition admissions because of low state reimbursements had backfired by significantly reducing revenue to the district, “a goal we scored on ourselves.”
Dillon said if revenue had been “even” this year, the district would have seen a 3.5 percent increase.
“It’s no longer about education,” Bailly said, frustrated again. “We have the best school system…but I don’t know how we can fund the bridges that the school busses go over when faced with this inequity.”
In the end, the school budget passed 3-2 on both boards, with Atwood, Blauvelt, Stanton and Bailly voting against.
If Town Meeting agrees, the police department will get its license plate reader and radio consoles, and the fire department, one new full-time position. Fire Chief Charlie Burger wanted two new full time positions, besides himself, but the Finance Committee brought it down to one, plus another 20 hour position, lowering the price tag from $110,000 to $75,000. The department currently has one part-time employee.
“Again…I’m going to want to know what we’re not getting,” Abrahams said.
Chief Burger was prepared to oblige him, and went to the podium with a laundry list of things — many of them safety risks, he said – –that “aren’t getting done.” He said the department’s “reactive approach” to dealing with equipment maintenance was “a very poor long-term budgeting approach, and a safety hazard.”
He said while the trucks look “nice and shiny” on the outside, “where they rot is on the underside,” and that requires “many, many, many hours” of crawling under there and scrubbing them. He said while they do by law have to contract out some work to a diesel mechanic at $85 per hour, more could be done in house for “a lot less.”
Bannon said times have changed. “Volunteers don’t have time to hang around the station anymore.”
Among other safety issues, Burger said, “we fail to properly review and critique our incidents. We don’t want to repeat mistakes. We don’t have the time to review incidents and improve for the future.”
Finally, Burger told everyone that throughout the state, fire departments “average 7 or more full-time employees.”
“I understand that there’s a lot requested,” he added. “The good news is you may not get another big request from the department in another 8 or 9 years.”
Given all the handwringing about how to save money, some town officials are trying find ways to make more to offset the rising costs of, well, just about everything.
Stanton wanted to discuss his proposal to add a gas tax of 3 cents per gallon that he estimates would add $300,000 per year to town coffers. He said the town was a “hub for gas,” and “Chapter 90 (state) money doesn’t come close to funding roads and bridges in a way that’s acceptable.” He said he doesn’t think property taxes are “an appropriate way” to fund roads and bridges.
“The average working person would say no on that one right away,” Atwood said, noting the plug already taken out of drivers with the motor vehicle tax.
Town accountant Lauren Sartori said it’s been about 9 or 10 years since the town had gotten its portion of the motor vehicle tax back from the state.
The town of Lee is presently considering a gas tax, Stanton noted, and added that “our roads and bridges, our infrastructure, is embarrassing — this is basically a user fee. In most civilized countries in the world gas is three times what it is here.”
“I’ve lived in those countries, and it’s fine and the roads are better,” Wise added.
Finance Committee member Leigh Davis said she thought a gas tax was a “creative” way to make money, since if people didn’t want to pay it, they “could buy gas somewhere else.”
