Board of Selectmen Budget Workshop, December 5, 2022

An incomplete attempt to propose a budget that meets the 4% tax cap.

The board’s preliminary budget came in at $264.5k over the 4% cap. Consequently, the board devoted a special session to making budget cuts so that the board could propose a budget to the Budget Committee that meets the tax cap. 

Selectmen Donna Danis and Tony Dumas expressed concern that the Budget Committee will make uninformed, arbitrary cuts to the budget. John Morin, who is the board’s representative to the Budget Committee disagreed. He thinks they are informed. Danis countered with an example of a question one Budget Committee member made to the School Board indicating that they were uninformed.

Selectman John Morin thinks that because of inflation the town should have a 7% budget increase, but the 4% tax cap is forcing the town to propose an insufficient budget.

The board adjusted many line items. The largest reduction they were able to propose involved some budgeting sleight-of-hand in which $100k of road work was taken out of the budget and put into a warrant article. Despite all of these efforts, the board fell $74k short of making the necessary cuts. The board will continue this work in their next regular meeting. 

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