Just so’s you know, I was on time for tonight’s School Committee meeting, but the committee voted to recess until 8:15 p.m. so everybody could race across town and attend the special Town Council meeting about postponing the financial town meeting (FTM). Upon the gang’s arrival at the Community Center, the Town Council voted unanimously to hold the FTM this Saturday, so back to the high school we’ve come.
One unexpected benefit of this moving around was that I managed to catch Director of Administration and Finance Doug Fiore in the hallway to clarify something: The teacher union’s maneuver to avoid the 18% healthcare copay (over the current 12%) cost the district $120,000 this year.
8:15 p.m.
OK. They’re back, talking budget, related to a legal opinion from RIDE, today, answering some question that attorney Robinson had sent regarding how the district should calculate its maximum request and such.
According to the assistant education commissioner, federal stimulus money cannot be used to calculate the local spending increase. (As I said had to be the case if English means anything when it’s used in the law.) Consequently, the committee’s requested local contribution of $21,285,285 must be reduced to $20,979,030.
Moreover, the commissioner told the district to factor in a 3.8% reduction in state and federal aid, which means the committee’s total general revenue request will be $25,620,772, which is slightly down from the request of $25,645,096, but still higher than the Budget Committee’s recommended $25,333,181.
9:00 p.m.
Attorney Robinson presented his opinion about the RIDE document, and I took the podium to offer a bit of rebuttal. The upshot of the discussion is that it is inaccurate to say that any number appropriated by the FTM is “illegal” provided it gives at least as much as the previous year appropriation of local funds. It might be accurate to say that it would be “illegal” for the FTM to vote for a number that does not mention the expected state and federal aid. In that case, according to RIDE, the town would be responsible for any aid shortfalls.
From home:
I should note that the committee voted (with only Danielle Coulter opposed) to change its request at the FTM to the numbers, cited above, suggested by the RIDE opinion. (The committee and administrators persisted in calling it “a ruling,” but in my opinion, that’s a little misleading.)
I should also note that it came up that it would be perfectly legal for the FTM to vote to expect zero state or federal aid and appropriate accordingly. As a practical matter, that’s clearly not a reasonable expectation, and the town should stick to the Budget Committee’s recommendation, but it is good to know.
(To expand: I’m not sure what the repercussions would be for the School Committee’s budgeting were that to happen. I suspect they could delay major cuts until the money came in, but I’m not sure that nothing would get blown out in the confusion.)
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