Minus $1.5 Million In Cuts, Meet Reading's FY19 Budget

One night after a bleak school department budget was presented by Superintendent John Doherty, it was Reading Town Manager Bob LeLacheur's turn to present his budget at Tuesday's Board of Selectmen meeting. Like the school budget, it wasn't pretty.

At December's library presentations, department heads explained their budgets in detail and why they were asking for more money. LeLacheur heard their requests for more ... and then started cutting. He had little choice. Administrative services was cut $198,000, DPW operations $100,650, public services $206,375 and in the biggest cut, police and fire had asked for nine new officers/firemen but got none, a cut to the public safety request of $837,000.

"Public safety is not being adequately funded," said LeLachuer, who was doing his fifth budget as Reading's Town Manager. "I'm not cutting nine police officers or firefighters but it's the same result. That's the area that's most underfunded.

"It's less painful than last year when we had a lot of layoffs in terms of staff and moral. It does not provide a level of service that the community is going to want. I'm a lot more in tune to the risk it presents to the community, which I hope doesn't ever come into any example. But public safety is hit or miss. If you have an incident, you wish you had more staff. So how do I feel about it, uncomfortable."

The presentation before the board is part of a process that is expected to lead to an override vote April 3. The last override attempt in October, 2016 was soundly defeated but with rising costs coupled with the limits of prop 2 1/2 another override attempt was just a matter of time.

LeLacheur's FY19 budget included a prioritized list of 30 items he'd like to restore in an override. The list also includes an estimated amount the average home owner in Reading would pay for each item, an attempt at transparency the board considered crucial for a new override to pass.

"Telling people what they're going to get and what they'd pay is entirely appropriate," said board member John Halsey.

Nine of the first 10 items involve public safety. No. 1 is a police officer at $103,000. If the override passed, that officer would cost the average Reading homeowner $13 extra on their tax bill. The list continues: 2. Firefighter; 3. Police officer; 4. Firefighter; 5. Police officer. Each would add $13 extra to your taxes.

No. 6 in LeLacheur's Top 30 was an assistant town accountant at $62,500, a total that would add approximately $8 to your tax bill. No. 7-10 are police and fire meaning that a successful override that included LeLacheur's first 10 items would cost taxpayers $127 a year in taxes. If all of LeLacheur's 30 positions were added the total would be roughly $214 per household. And remember, the schools are certain to have their own list as well.

In total, Doherty and LeLacheur presented 174 pages worth of Reading budgets over two days. The process continues Wednesday and Thursday when the School Committee meets at the RMHS library. As for the Board of Selectmen, they have until their Jan. 30 meeting to decide whether to ask for an override vote and how big to make it. The failed 2016 override was for $7.5 million.

The 90-minute budget discussion wasn't the only item on the agenda. Earlier in the meeting the board heard from Fire Chief Greg Burns on the gas outage Thursday night that resulted in 78 homes losing heat. The fire department sent out six code red alerts during the outage, some that contradicted earlier alerts when National Grid fixed the issue only to have it re-occur. The alerts, combined with difficulties contacting National Grid, created frustrations among area residents who were already dealing with the aftermath of the winter storm along with freezing temperatures.

Photo by Bob Holmes