Warrant Committee Level-Service Budgeting Talks

Just how much will a dollar today be worth in two years?

That's the question put before the Executive Budget Committee, Sub-Committee of the Warrant Committee Friday morning, Sept. 10.

But this was not a theoretical question thrown out to wake up the participants at the 8 a.m. morning meeting. The answer will have real world consequences for budget discussions before the Warrant Committee this year.

Elizabeth Allison, the Warrant Committee's interim chairman, brought the issue of level-service budget to the table and what is involved in creating one.

Essentially the aim of a level-service budget is to appropriate monies for the same services that were provided in previous years.

The level- service budget forecasts for inflation, contractual obligations, enrollment and assumes that many other factors stay the same in order to predict the monies needed deliver the same level of services from one year to the next.

This is unlike a level-funded budget that spends the same dollar amount as in the previous year without making provisions for inflation and cost increases.

In nearly all cases, a level-funded budget will require cuts in programs to meet the available static funding.

The subcommittee members Friday discussed how a level-service budget should be defined and what needs to be examined in order to overcome challenges in determining the services.

Selectman Mark Paolillo said level-service budget could be testing because services from one year to the next have to be examined with certain assumptions in place. He suggested starting with the services first and then looking at the money.

Committee members agreed that, although it could be a challenge, the level-service budget would allow people see what services have changed from one year to the next.

"People don't have to look at all the 1,200 line items of the school budget, they can look at the change and the different set of assumptions and see what is driving the cost," said Allison.

The Warrant Committee also looked to the school department's director of finance to guide them through the new chart of accounts, the coding system that categorize Belmont's school expenditures, as well as implementing a level-service budget.

Anthony DiCologero, who succeeded Gerry Missal as director of finance, administration and capital planning, said that he created the chart of accounts as accurate as possible, establishing seven segments that will be used to finely categorize expenses. The categories can be produced into financial reports that are similar to other districts across the state. 

"Because it's new, you're not entirely sure what you're going to need and how it's going to play out, so it makes sense if you're going to error you want to error on the side of being able to collect more data," said DiCologero. 

The coding system allows costs to be broken out into categories by school location; programs, such as science; functions that include operations, support and fringe benefits; and details like supplies, office supplies and elementary science textbooks.

For example, salaries which are a major expense can be labeled as professional, public, contracted services; other expenses related to salaries not assigned to a code can be easily created for customized reporting, said DiCologero.