OP/ED: Selectmen's Message on Town Budget

To The Residents of Amherst:

First off, the Board of Selectmen would like to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday Season. The Board of Selectmen, the Town Administrator and the Department Heads have been hard at work preparing a comprehensive FY13 budget that’s cost efficient yet meets the ongoing challenges the voters face each year when voting at the polls in March 2012.

This year, as the budget process began, we were immediately faced with an increase of about 3.62% in the default budget alone. This increase is directly attributed to the road and bridge bonds, passed over the last couple of years. As a result, the Board instructed the Town Administrator and Department Heads, to prepare flat budgets, not exceeding the default level, with the only increases to be contractual items such as health insurance lines, state retirement and increasing fuel costs. To achieve that directive several lines in each budget required either reductions or elimination of services.

We are now faced with the reality that reducing essential line items to stay at the default budget level will significantly impact the town and continue to put us further behind, costing our taxpayers even more money in the years to come. We have already seen this in the deterioration of our roads and bridges, as we now have bond payments necessary to fix them. So, after considering the ramifications of a flat budget, the board decided to review all the budgets and return money to critical lines that would help stop the downward trend that has been happening for the past several years.

We are currently considering addressing the deficiencies in the following areas.

• The Repair and Maintenance line for our town buildings, of which some are in major need for repair.
• The addition of a new full time employee to the Department of Public Works, beginning 6 months into this budget spreading the funding for the position over 2 years.
• The Contingency Fund line. As we continue to operate with bare bones budgets, the need to increase the contingency line will allow us to better respond to the need for additional emergency equipment and personnel during a catastrophic event. This will help mitigate any excessive damage if needed. Although we were lucky after the October storm to have a couple of other towns and State DOT send manpower and equipment to assist our town, these weather related emergencies are occurring more and more frequently and we cannot continue to rely upon the generosity of others.
• Since 1998 we haven’t added any additional patrol officers to our Police Department which our present and former chiefs have been saying is needed badly. We are not alone when we look at the data and see that crime continues to rise. So with that being the case, in an effort to increase our community policing efforts, we are looking to add an officer, utilizing the same 6 month delayed start as we are proposing with the DPW employee, to again spread this cost over 2 years.

Our Department Heads have brought concerns forward and now we need to further evaluate those concerns with a focus on retaining our dedicated personnel by providing a competitive work environment. Our employees haven’t received a Cost of Living Adjustment since July 2009 and the earliest that they can receive one now would be July 2012. We plan to address this issue this year.

Although we still have other town-wide issues that need to be addressed, we feel that we can wisely wait another year, in order to study them further.

We are providing this information with the hopes to inform our residents early in the process and invite them to join the process by attending meetings and asking questions, so that they can make informed decisions at the polls in March. We know that it is yet another year in which our budget has more challenges than normal, but it just outlines clearly what our town needs to continue to operate in a sound manner without putting us further behind or costing us all more in the long run. We will be providing more information in the weeks leading up to the March voting.

Amherst Board of Selectmen

Bruce Bowler, Chairman

Dwight Brew, Vice Chairman

George Infanti

Tom Grella

Brad Galinson