Higher Expenses and Small State Aid Increase Blamed for Weymouth Budget

A less than desired increase in state aid is being blamed for a proposed budget that elected officials say does not meet the needs of the town.

This week, Mayor Susan Kay submitted a $149 million budget to the town council, an increase of $5.3 million or 3.7 percent.

“We have kept our expenses as low as we can, we now need revenue to better the town of Weymouth,” Kay said.

Kay told the town council that the budget as presented is not level service for many key departments. Increases include needs within departments, an increase in fixed costs including $1.3 million in heath care, and structural revenue deficiencies.

Also not helping matters is the $3.2 million deficit in the snow removal budget, more than the last three years combined. If the town is to get federal aid, it will only cover the first storm in January and not any of the February storms.

Current projections show an increase in state aid of only 0.8 percent or $285,000. The minimal increase continues a trend in decreased aid increases. In fiscal year 2013, the increase was 6.4 percent.

District Four Councilor Arthur Mathews agreed with the concern over the lack of more aid from the state.

“I’ve been talking about this for years about how the state fails local communities,” he said. “I think it’s important to point out that we should be calling our local legislatures to get more money from local aid because this puts us in a bad predicament and it’s getting worst every year.”

Local aid for fiscal year 2016 totals about $36.29 million, with $27.58 going to Weymouth schools.

On the school side, the budget is up $1.7 million to $61.8. The figure is, however, lower than what was voted on by the school committee. Kay said she would propose moving $1.3 million from free cash to help in funding the school budget.

Also at the meeting, Kay recommended a proposition 2-1/2 override to help address the needs of the town. The proposal, endorsed by the town council and school committee, would give the town an additional $6.5 million in revenue. $3 million of the extra cash would go to the schools, $1 million each to the police department, the department of public works, and the fire department, and $500,000 for various other departments.

The budget will now head to the budget management committee for review. The town council will have until June 30 to pass a budget which would take effect on July 1.