Teeny Town Budget? Yep, When Compared to School Budget

On Wednesday at 7:00 PM, the Bedford Town Council will hold the first of its public hearings on the proposed Town budget for 2014, which right now comes in at $26,592,098, roughly $661,000 larger than in 2013. It should be noted, however, that the 2014 total includes revenue fund budgeting of almost $1.9 million, that is "in and out" money that has no impact on taxpayers. A second public hearing is scheduled for February 12th. Given the brutally cold weather, and the fact that this week's Council meeting has a full agenda, I suspect that many of those residents who have comments on or questions about the budget may be inclined to hold their silence until the February public hearing.

February 12th should be a big night because both the $30 million proposed road bond AND the proposed South River Road fire department substation will also have their public hearings on that night.

Will Bedford residents ultimately decide that they'd rather put up with bumpy roads than commit to $30 million? That's a big wild card, isn't it?

As to the other, so far I personally have not heard any public groundswell of support for an additional fire station so that the South River Road area will reportedly get quicker ambulance service than there is now - - - that being the most vocal point of support being given for the multimillion dollar expense. Aside from the cost of the actual building of another fire station, it will then need to be staffed by 11 additional fire department personnel whose salaries and benefits will total well over $1 million per year. I think that the Town Council has a tough sell ahead of them to convince Bedford taxpayers that all of this is absolutely necessary.

But getting back to the Town's proposed budget, is it small compared to what we spend on our Bedford schools?

Well, yeah, it is. The preliminary school budget is a whopping $64,140,242, which with changes in revenue sources will result in a 75-cent tax increase. However, the ballot warrant article dealing with the third year of the collective bargaining contract with the school department's secretaries, clerks, instructional teaching assistants, and kitchen staff will add another 3-cents. So, at the moment, we're looking at a 78-cent tax increase per thousand on the school side of our tax bills. As I understand, there is not yet an answer on the contract with the school department paraprofessionals.

I counted only 15 people at Tuesday night's school budget hearing - - - 2 of the 15 were my husband and me, and another 2 were school principals. There possibly were a couple of other school department personnel included in the remaining 11 people.

Call me crazy, but I'm appalled that only 15 people showed up to hear about a budget of over $64 million for a school system with a student population of slightly over 4400 kids . . . a population that is projected to decline to 4300 in 2015 and to 4200 in 2016.

It all reminds me of that saying "The lights are on, but nobody is home". Or is it just that everyone in Bedford is living so large that they just don't give a damn about how much it costs to live in the bubble? Please tell me what the answer is.

PLEASE NOTE:

After this blog was posted, I received an email this morning reminding me that the Council has changed the staffing of a new fire department substation from 11 people to 3 people since the station would not be open 24-hours per day but only during daytime hours when call volume is the highest. Of course we have no idea as to how long that arrangement would  last before full staffing of 11 people for 24-hours would be sought. 

A combination of fiscal concern, common sense, and creative thinking brought about that change. Perhaps the Council could continue on that course and come up with a workable solution that could avoid the need for an additional fire department station altogether. Bedford is not a booming metropolis, so it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that an alternative solution could be found. Such would go a long way to increasing public confidence in our Town Council.