by Frank Schroth

Last week the John Phelan, Asst Superintendent, presented the FY15 budget to the Warrant Committee. The budget requests $2.1 million over the FY14 budget but the money isn’t there according to Ted Hayes, Chair of the Warrant Committee.

Hayes said there is “a lot of excitement for what the schools can do and are doing” however, “there is a limited amount of magic [we can do] with a limited amount of money.” Hayes said that the town currently had approximately $1.1 million in new money. This is due to $2 million in free cash but $871K of that has already been spoken for in this year’s budget.

Free cash is the amount of money that exceeds the past year’s revenue projections. This past year, for example, the town received greater than expected revenues for the excise tax on cars. (Why there was $2 million in free cash and whether that represents a possible problem with the town’s budgeting is also a discussion that is being debated but will not be taken up here.)

School vice-chair Leroy Walker said it was early in the process and that the budget represented a “data driven decision” that that “the budget is what we need to continue making progress.” Mr. Walker was referring to the funding for the second year of a three year advancement initiative. Warrant Committee member Kevin Sorgi had said that the presentation was terrific but that “we are going to cut this budget if nothing is done .  .  . how hard are you willing to fight?” This statement followed one made by WC member Darnel Turner, “I don’t think that we can take a step back .  .  .[but I] can do the math.  .  . All we do is count numbers. The push has to come from somewhere else.”

The topic percolating was the need for an override and the need for the School Committee to take up the issue with the Board of Selectmen. The Selectmen are the ones to decide if the town will pursue an override (i.e. put an item on the ballot asking if the voters will approve an amount over the 2 1/2% property tax limit). The town has a history of passing overrides every several years. Determining when one is necessary and what the public appetite is for it is a political challenge. Walker said, and Hayes acknowledged, that it is early in the budget process and that there are many financial moving parts. However, it is appeared that given current financial situation, the current FY15 request would be hard to meet