Select Board should request some documentation on mid-year request for $231K budget increase.

 

Photo by StellrWeb on Unsplash

On Monday at noon the Select Board will review the warrant for a November 14th Special Town Meeting.

One item that needs some attention will be a mid-year request to appropriate an additional $231,160.  The budget approved in May, which covers the town's fiscal year from July 1, 2022 through June 31st, 2023, approved $25,841,636 in appropriations.

The $231,160 would be allocated to cover:

$85,975 in projected additional utility costs.   I don't think anyone will be surprised at a projected increase in expenses for electricity (up $30,000 to $80,000)  or heating oil (up $30,000 to $50,000).    I think my electric and oil bills have also increased about $30,000.

$2,500 in projected additional expenses for "Street Lights."  

$83,685 in additional "Snow and Ice" costs.   The increase would cover a projected $83,685 increase in costs for road salt.   (From $50,000 to $133,685)    The town's salt costs appear to have increased drastically over the past few years:

                2019-2020 actual:   $51,624
                2020-2021 actual:   $77,717
                2021-2022 actual:   $114,129

If only I had converted my 401K to road salt.  On Friday, the town's finance director showed a spreadsheet showing that all $50K budgeted for salt has already been used.   (On Friday the town administrator said it went out to bid and the cost was "astronomical" this year.)    $50K was not likely to be a sufficient budget in the first place -- that would have been less than any of the previous three fiscal years.

According to the 2022-2023 budget we approved in May, the FY2021 budget was $29,200, the department request was $80K  and the town administrators recommendation was $50K.  

Municipal snow and ice budgets have special privileges in Massachusetts...because they are so unpredictable, towns are permitted to roll snow and ice budget deficits from one year into the next as long as the town budgets at least what they did the previous year.  I would have liked to hear a discussion about how future budgets will look if we increase the salt budget this much -- will this cause us to budget too much in the future?

$59,000 in additional "Legal Billing" costs over the already-high May budget.    This would be an increase from $145,000 to $204,000 for FY2023.   It's already drawn some resident scrutiny.   If approved, the 2023 appropriation would be four times the appropriation for FY2020.

                2019-2020 actual:  $56,698
                2020-2021 actual:  $77,771
                2021-2022 actual:  $156,297

The budget allocated $145,000 for this fiscal year, and the town has spent $59,000 through last week.  The town did switch to a different firm for legal services at the end of last year.   The limited billing detail the town receives has left the town unable to respond to requests about exactly where the money is going.

Over the summer an enormous amount of town resources were devoted to an unsuccessful smear campaign against Council on Aging director Alix Turner.   After a farcical, open public hearing, the towns "charges" were dropped.   Afterward, Alix Turner walked away in frustration and Select Board Chair Jason Allison stepped down "for the good of the town."   According to the town administrator round $4,500 was spent on unsuccessful attempts to suppress public information about the debacle.

Sterling's FY2023 budget for legal services is $62,000.

The Finance Committee looked over the increased appropriations on Friday night: they discussed it with the town administrator and finance director for 15 minutes and moved to recommend the amended budget at town meeting.