Lynnfield Administrator talks override

LYNNFIELD — This month, town officials from the Select Board and the School Committee have emphasized the need for a budget override this year to avoid difficult decisions for departments, in particular the school, which has asked for $3.8 million.To help keep residents informed during the process, Town Administrator Rob Dolan has opened multiple channels for communication.

This includes an email, [email protected], for people to message, question and answer sessions throughout April, and posting his budget presentation and the full financials chart to the town website.Dolan clarified some of the most important aspects of the town’s budget and why he and other officials have decided an override is necessary.



“The general premise is it’s a $4 million deficit based on the chart I gave. Basically, it’s schools and insurance,” Dolan said. “Then there’s three other problems that we want to solve.

For one is the technology issue, the second is two new firefighters, and third is the trash contract, which is going to be in year three, and that’s going to be between a million. The last portion is making sure there’s enough room each year to absorb the increase in the teacher’s contract.”It’s because of this accounting for future costs that the override request is $5 million, with the extra $1 million not going towards addressing the town’s deficit being used for expenses coming down the road.

This way, the town won’t be in another challenging financial spot when, for instance, the grants currently paying for four firefighters expire in two years, with no room in the budget to pay for an overnight crew.“That’s the number one question: ‘the schools get the million, but doesn’t the million stay there? Where’s the extra million going towards for over three years?’” Dolan said. “That’s for the four things.

Technology, which the school’s asked for. $1,200,000 for the firefighters, $800,000 to a million for the trash, and then making sure we have enough to absorb contrast in year two and three.”It will also be able to absorb rising insurance costs, a fixed price which has grown dramatically this year, and will only continue to grow along with contracts.

“We’re in the service delivery business. We don’t buy a lot of widgets, pens, it’s all people, and then this stuff that we need to serve the people,” Dolan said. “The one thing that joins the public sector, nonprofits, and the public sector is health insurance is really, really expensive, and it’s going up at incredible rates.

”This year, health insurance costs have risen by 13%, a 4.5% increase in pension costs, and a 15.7% increase for property and casualty insurances, adding up to a total of $1,329,615 in costs for Lynnfield.

Dolan emphasized how the town has no control over how the insurance is managed, meaning this large expense can’t be touched as they figure out where to cut costs and make difficult financial decisions.It’s Dolan’s and the other town officials’ task to find the places where cuts can be made, so that the $4 million dollar deficit can be closed and they reach a balanced budget, something which is required by law for all local governments.“Next year, the expenses are up here and the revenues down here.

So there’s that gap. And there’s only two ways to close that gap. It’s really Elementary.

You either cut it or you ask to add,” Dolan explained. “We’ve got $2.1 million from taxes to spend, and out of that has to come a lot of fixed costs, like health insurance and property and casualty and all the things we have to do under the law.

So there’s not a lot left, and that’s the rub.”“The problem outside of local government, particularly in the federal government, is that people say, ‘Well, you can just have a deficit, or you just borrow.’ You can’t do that.

We have to have the right side balanced with the left side,” he said.Without an override, the town will have to make cuts at the senior center, the library, which would lose its accreditation as a result, school bus operations, and would need to give level funding to the school budget, meaning they’d have the same amount of money to work with as they did last year.“The fact is this, this is not just Linfield, and we’re not blaming teachers at all.

We’re not even saying what teachers deserve or don’t deserve. Teachers’ contracts are driving budgets throughout the state,” Dolan said. “When communities have a strike and they agree to contracts that are three times the amount you bring in, what do you think is gonna happen? There’s not a magic pill here.

”As Lynnfield schools continue to negotiate contracts with staff, how the town can afford to offer a competitive salary compared to other towns, is something which every resident will likely have in mind as they decide whether to send an override vote to ballot at the Tuesday, April 29 town meeting.The post Lynnfield Administrator talks override appeared first on Itemlive..