Mansfield Financial Committee Warns of Future Budget Gaps

The finance committee is warning a fiscal tsunami is on the way for Mansfield, and members say strict cutbacks must be made starting now to keep the wheels of government turning and to care adequately for all of Mansfield’s 24,000 residents. 

Today’s budget gap of over $3 million between the town and school departments will pale in comparison to the $15.5 million gap the town would reach by 2017, without the institution of calculated and difficult sacrifices, finance committee chairman Andy Gazzolo told selectmen Wednesday.

The projections assumed a three percent increase in salaries every year, and a yearly 7.5 percent increase in benefits and pensions for the town and school employees; any ability to increase taxes on residents and businesses ends in 2015, when the levy ceiling will be met.

What the drastic situation would mean for homeowners is plain in the charts --  $6000 a year more in property taxes on high-end homes by the end of the projections, and $2000 more for the average home worth $309,000.

A host of factors figure into the five-year forecast – flat state contributions, decreasing school populations that some state funds are geared towards, and above all, the more than 80 percent of the budget that is dedicated to salaries for town and school employees – salaries that regularly rise because of contractual requirements that reflect things like years served in town and advanced education attained while on the job.

“This all assumes we don’t lose our industrial base,” Gazzolo said. “But we will lose some. The loss of those taxes would then have to be absorbed by residential rate payers.”

Gazzolo particularly singled out the school department for using one-time federal stimulus funds for hiring staff when they were warned that practice was fiscally unsustainable. The schools hired 17 people at a cost of $1.2 million last year with ARRA funding that has since dried up.

“I’ve been 18 years on the FinCom,” Gazzolo said. “This year we created our own problems, because one-time funds were used for the base.”

Town Manager Bill Ross also pointed out the state has forced the community into a number of “unfunded mandates” – programs that were supposed to be reimbursed at a rate that has not been realized, causing the town to make up the difference. The Quinn Bill, legislation that guarantees increased pay for public safety employees who go back to school, is one example. Towns who were told they would be reimbursed have had to shoulder that burden themselves.

The cost of state and federally mandated special education is another example of costly programs that have seen precious little in the way of reimbursement, Ross said. Just recently, the school department realized they had to dedicate $400,000 to the change in placement for only four special education students.

Selectmen said they agreed with the finance committee that cuts have to be made now, but acknowledged there is little they can cut from except personnel.

“The town has $1 million to cut, and the schools have $2.2 million,” said chairman Jess Aptowitz. “No one has cut anyone. You can have all the meetings you want – we’re still $3.2 million short.

“There are people out there who would shut whole departments down to get their way, and every year it gets worse and worse,” he said.

Ross is working with Town Accountant John Stanbrook and others to determine where the lean town budget can sustain further reductions, while trying to reinstate two police officers and a firefighter determined to be critical to public safety.

The schools have yet to suggest any cuts at all, but are expected to come up with their own suggestions for their budget.

And although at least one school committee member and some residents have proposed going to Town Meeting with a budget that is out of balance, Ross emphasized the state does not allow any community to do that.

“The town cannot adopt an unbalanced budget – there will be no money from the Department of Revenue till you do have a balanced budget,” he said, adding the voters would have to return repeatedly to Town Meeting until a balance was voted.