They’ve jumped right in with the School Committee’s notes for the Town Council, with two basic points:
- The school department believes that they were shorted in the current year. Depending on what funds must be counted in the budget for purposes of the mandated local “maintenance of effort,” it could be anywhere from a quarter million dollars to four million dollars.
- They feel positive about some sort of concession from the teachers’ union, but they don’t want to take any budgetary actions before they know.
Here’s the language in state law requiring a certain increase for school departments.
7:18 p.m.
School Committee Chairman Jan Bergandy stated that “It was always our plan to go below the cap.” Frankly, as somebody who has sat through just about every school committee meeting during this budget season, that really hasn’t been an impression that I’ve gotten.
Superintendent Bill Rearick seems optimistic that they’ll be able to wrap up mediation with the teachers’ union in time for the FTM. From what I hear, any concessions won’t be anywhere near enough to make up budget shortfalls. In other words, the impression is that they’re seeking to lock in a number before the FTM.
7:37 p.m.
Council Member Ed Roderick noted that what the School Committee is calling “the cap” really isn’t the cap, because it doesn’t take into account the town’s budget. Rearick responded that he thought debt service should be included in calculating the cap, and since the town has so much debt, thanks to school bonds, we can just go ahead and raise taxes more.
Town Council member Louise Durfee quipped, at some point that, “It would solve all our problems if we get that car tax.” More increased taxes.
Apparently, if I’m understanding correctly, the schools’ complaint is that they’re counting their “appropriation” as total money, so the town is required to make up lost state and federal money that was estimated in the “appropriation.”
I took the mic to mention that (1) the state’s language speaks to the “local funds” that must go up, (2) the financial town meeting calculated the necessary increase on a per pupil basis, and (3) the FTM explicitly stated that any extra money should return to the town. Council President Don Bollin said that the language about returning money has never been enforceable.
The, oddly, Rearick said that he concurs, leaving me at a loss as to what their complaint actually is. I’ll have to check the tape, I guess.
8:09 p.m.
Council Member Jay Lambert noted that many older residents can’t afford increases in taxes. I took the podium to note that many younger families, like mine, are seeing higher costs and lower income, as well.
I also challenged a previous statement by School Committee member Leonard Wright in which he claimed that each teacher would have to take a $10,000 cut in salary/benefits to save $1.8 million. Wright reached that argument by stating that the town needed $1.4 million, so $1.8 million would leave a little extra (for legal challenges). I made the point that he was calculating the $1.4 million off of next year’s budget, which includes something like $700,000 in increased salary/benefit costs.
He doggedly held to his number as an example, so the year of the budget didn’t matter, but it manifestly does matter, because the town wouldn’t need $10,000 from each teacher’s current salary. You’d need about half that, which is much less than many private sector incomes have fallen.
8:25 p.m.
The School Committee has departed, and Ms. Durfee noted that she “can’t live with the Budget Committee’s cuts” and suggested a likelihood that they’ll need to go for a waiver of the tax cap. In the interim, she’s suggesting that Town Administrator Jim Goncalo come up with a lower municipal budget to get a little closer to the Budget Committee and then return to the Budget Committee with the new numbers.
8:34 p.m.
The Town Council is discussing some language from Solicitor Andy Teitz by which the General Assembly would allow cities and towns to postpone budget decisions for 90 days, so that they can be made with better information.
8:40 p.m.
Teitz suggested that Town Clerk Nancy Mello send the draft legislation to every other city and town.
Leonard Wright is noting that a budget decision in August or September would present really big problems considering that the school department must notify teachers that they may not be asked back by March.
Of course, I’d add, with contracts typically ending at the end of the fiscal year (end of June, I believe), moving the FTM would allow town bodies to operate with a (theoretically) hard-stop deadline for negotiations well before they know what the taxpayers are willing to provide.
8:50 p.m.
The council is moving forward with the proposed legislation. Between discussions, Durfee brought up the possibility of increasing car taxes again.
8:59 p.m.
Council member Cecil Leonard moved to take discussion of exceeding the tax cap off the table. Only Jay Lambert voted with him.
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