Manager's Budget Includes 4 Percent Increase

A public hearing will be held tonight on the Town Manager’s Recommended Budget, which proposes a 4 percent increase over the 2011-2012 budget, with a 2.04 percent increase in town operations and 3.55 percent increase in the Board of Education budget.

The Town Council set budget targets Feb. 13, asking Town Manager Kathleen Eagen to bring the town budget in at a 2 percent increase — what she said was needed to maintain current services. The council advised the Board of Education, which will have a negotiated zero percent increase in salaries, the board’s largest account, to bring its budget in between a zero and 2 percent increase. The Board of Education adopted its budget with a 3.55 percent increase the next day.

Eagen’s budget includes town accounts: General Administration, which includes administrative branch expenses and funding for nonprofits; Public Safety, including fire, police, emergency medical and ambulance services, dispatching, and building inspection functions; Public Works, including the departments of Public Works and Development, Highway and Grounds and Engineering; Community and Recreation, which includes community services and housing; and Other, for employee benefits and contingency.

The General Administration account will see a 2.8 percent decrease in 2012-2013, according to Eagen’s address in the Recommended Budget, due to three negotiated contracts. Other costs remain flat.

Under Public Safety, Eagen recommends a 4 percent increase. Funding for the Fire Department would be increased mostly due to an increase in pay per call expenses, since the volume of fire calls has increased by 8.7 percent, Eagen said in her budget.

Increases in expenses for the Police Department are due to a new contract, as well as three 24-hour police vehicles and an increase in training funding due to new state mandates.

The Public Works account increases 2.8 percent under Eagen’s budget due to contract changes, four seasonal employees and an increase in the gas and diesel accounts due to the skyrocketing cost of fuel.

Eagen passed on the Community and Recreation request at 1.3 percent over current year.

Under the Other group of accounts, Eagen notes that the town’s pension account increased by only 1.6 percent, due to changes in the Police Pension and investment performance. The accounts’ total recommended increase is 3.7 percent, though, after the town and Board of Education adopted a policy to fully fund the self-insurance fund.

Those accounts, on the town side, add up to $24,651,967, a 2.04 increase over current spending. The Board of Education budget request, with a proposed 3.55 percent increase, is $55,894,056.

The Town Manager's Recommended Budget for 2012-2013 totals $91,129,640, an increase of 4 percent.