Selectmen Set Date for Override Vote

The “honeymoon period” Selectman elect Dan Dunn lasted a mere 48 hours for the new town officer, as he and the rest of the delved into the proposed override at Monday night’s meeting.

The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to put an override on a ballot for June 7, the seven-year anniversary of the town’s last override vote.

“We told the town we wouldn’t come back for five years with an override, and it’s been seven. If we hadn’t had the economic downturn in 2009, I believe we could’ve stretched that even further,” said Selectman Diane Mahon. “We’ve proven that we can be responsible.”

The town currently faces and a projected $6 million deficit for FY2012. Without an override, calls for cuts to police and fire, public schools, town libraries and the DPW.

Town Officials are also debating the “Pay As You Throw” (PAYT) waste management policy, which imposes a residential fee for trash collection based upon household size and usage. If implemented, the program would save the town $2 million per year—funds that would then be used to offset the town’s budget deficit and prevent further service cuts. 

The Selectmen are still in the process of determining the exact figures for the override, as well as the language and number of questions that will appear on the ballot. Though the figures will most likely change before the Board finalizes the ballot questions, a working proposal for a three-year override includes the following provisions:

• No operating override will be requested for at least three years.
• Town and school operating budget increases will not exceed 2.5 percent per year.
• Documented special education cost increases will not exceed seven percent per year. If special education costs exceed this amount, the remaining school budget will be decreased by the difference.
• Health care cost increases will be programmed at 10 percent. If increases exceed this amount, the town and school budgets will be proportionately decreased by this amount. If health care increases are less than 10 percent as a result of negotiated health care savings (should town employees settle with the GIC), the town and school budgets will be proportionately increased by the difference.  
• An additional $600,00 will be appropriated to the school department in FY2012.
• An additional $400,00 will be appropriated for road improvements, beyond the amount currently allocated for such projects in the capital budget
• Reserves (savings) will be maintained at five percent of operating revenues over the course of the three-year period.
• Depending on the dollar amount of the override, the PAYT program could be eliminated over the three-year commitment period, so residents will not have to shoulder trash collection fees. 

Board members and Town Manager Brian Sullivan have been meeting with the Finance Committee, the Planning Board and financial experts to determine the most appropriate and feasible figure to bring to voters. Newly appointed Chairman Clarissa Rowe remarked that these committees have been doing “excellent work,” but that the language of the questions is still “confusing” and the price is still “too high.”

As town officials continue to hammer out the details for June’s ballot, many decisions still hang in the balance which could implicate the town’s financial status and the proposed override. The over a new contract and present both town officials and voters with two “big unknowns,” as Dan Dunn put it.

Dunn moved to put the override on the ballot so that the Finance Committee and the Town Manager can move forward with the town departments’ supplemental budgets.

“There is still room to talk about how we structure health care and insurance [in the override questions],” Dunn said. “But we need to present the information to voters, so it’s time to have a healthy conversation and make that conclusion.”

The Board of Selectmen must determine the official ballot questions and send them to residents within 36 days of the override vote, so voters can expect to see the finalized override in the first week of May.

“The direction of town shouldn’t be in the hands of five people,” Rowe said. “We need to put the question on the ballot and let the voters decide.”