The Marion Finance Committee met jointly with the Select Board on February 2 to hear Finance Director Judy Mooney and Town Administrator Jay McGrail make a preliminary presentation of the FY23 budget.
McGrail thanked Mooney for her hard work and said that without her he could not have produced the budget proposal. “I can tell you from where we are today, a ton of work had been done,” he said.
In December, explained McGrail, department heads were asked to submit level-service budgets with additional requests made separately. “Some of the cuts that Judy and I had to propose to the department heads to get tonight’s budget where it is were really hard to swallow,” said McGrail. “I really appreciate they saw the bigger picture as they always do and helped us get to where we need to be (as of February 2.”)
McGrail told the Finance Committee and Select Board that as of the February 2 joint meeting, Marion was still facing a $100,000 budget deficit. He said that the Covid pandemic is still causing stress in the town’s budget from sick employees to replacement staffing costs and supply issues and new practices leveraged by safety standards.
Financial impacts were made in the fall by the boil order of late October and the severe Nor’easter. McGrail said that the water event has changed the town’s capital planning, probably “forever.”
If there is an upside to Marion’s outlook, it is an unprecedented $3,700,000 in the town’s free cash account. The result is a rare opportunity to lower debt and fund projects that otherwise never would have reached the construction stage, and Marion’s AAA bond rating will remain intact.
Capital Planning, town officials hope, will see $1,000,000 of that money in FY23; $300,000 is earmarked for the operating budget and $220,000 for the Sewer Enterprise Fund, as Marion continues to face the ramifications of the nearly completed $10,000,000 lagoon project at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The town is also committed to funding OPEB with free cash but has yet to determine at what amount.
Marion’s major municipal construction projects will also benefit: $1,500,000 in free cash to lower its borrowing toward the new $4,500,000 Department of Public Works headquarters. The remaining $3,000,000 will be on the warrant for Town Meeting.
In line for $2,000,000 of state-level support from the Seaport Economic Council toward the new Maritime Center (also on the warrant,) will request appropriation of up to $700,000 from the town’s Waterways Account as the matching funds for the grant.
The $300,000-$350,000 balance will be in an article asking voters to support partially offset property-tax increases on a one-time basis. The excess levy capacity would lower the average Marion home’s taxes by $70-$90 in FY23.
The FY23 budget is expected to increase by 3.5 percent. McGrail told the joint meeting of the Finance Committee and Select Board that Marion’s average budget increase is 3.34 percent.
Thanks to state-level, police-reform measures, Marion would incur more police overtime and is proposing mitigation of those effects by proposing the addition of the new, full-time police officer and an increase in hours for the department’s administrative assistant.
“The problem with all police departments is that the Police Reform Bill eliminated the reserve-officer component, where a lot of small towns got their weekend and night work. They basically have to go through the regular academy if they’re young enough or they have to get out,” said Finance Committee member Peter Winters. “I think that time has passed so it’s pretty much going to be the regular, professional officers that are going to be staffing all police details, all shifts for all of Massachusetts.”
Winters recommended offline discussion with Chief Richard Nighelli to discuss recruitment.
Two outside drivers raising Marion’s FY23 budget are a $65,000 preliminary-estimated increase (21 percent) in the assessment from Upper Cape Tech where four Marion students attend and a $102,528 increase (nearly 8 percent) in the annual pension assessment from Plymouth County.
Internally, Marion has incurred increased costs in Public Works, which manages the Benson Brook Transfer Station and the curbside collection program. After leaving the Carver, Marion, Wareham (CMW) refuse district effective January 2021, Marion began using town employees to operate Benson Brook.
According to McGrail, the town broke even over FY21 and is tracking toward at least that successful a result through FY22, but curbside collection costs have grown by approximately $50,000 due to an unforeseen increase in usage necessitating an amendment to the contract with the waste-management company.
McGrail told the Finance Committee that two capital projects, the Creek Road Pump Station and Front Street Force-Main, are being pulled from Town Meeting. In lieu of budget requests, the projects are hoping to use ARPA funding and grant opportunities. Should those pathways fail, McGrail said the projects will come back before the Finance Committee.
The Recreation Department, affected by the DPW overhaul, was budgeted in FY22 for $158,000. With only a part-time director (Scott Tavares,) the FY23 budget proposal is for $134,000. Lifeguards will be paid more competitively.
Included in the financial package given to the committee was the results of the Capital Improvement Planning Committee.
In an effort to run a more-efficient Town Meeting, non-debt CIPC articles will be consolidated into one vote to recommend (or not) by FinCom, while debt-related articles such as the proposed DPW and Harbormaster facilities will be voted separately. McGrail stipulated that all articles will be up for discussion. The CIPC report will be attached as a supplement to the warrant.
Mooney followed McGrail’s presentation, laying out the basics of the annual budget. Total General Fund revenues of $26,082,850 are projected for FY23. General Fund debt for FY23 is $744,000. The FY23 proposed budget figure is $26,189,671. Given the fact Massachusetts will have a new governor in FY23, Mooney said it is difficult to project state aid.
After Mooney went through the Old Rochester Regional School District aspect of the budget, Finance Committee Chairman Shay Assad said he intends to meet with Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber to find out “precisely” how the budget process works.
“I think I understand it now, but I’m going to sit down with him again. The reality is our enrollment is such that we get an equal vote in the baseline, and that kind of drives part of this calculation,” said Assad. “I’ll put together a paper so that you can all understand it – A, B, C, D, E. Very simply, this is how it works, and this is why the Marion assessment is what it is.”
Two years ago, the Marion Finance Committee was frustrated with what its inability to decipher the process, but since ORR Superintendent Mike Nelson was hired and brought in Barber, the Finance Committee has been much more hopeful that regular communication will reveal the inner workings of the school budget. Even so, it has taken Marion’s leadership to get to this point on the road to making the process discernible to the membership.
“Right now several people feel – and I agree with them – that it’s a little bit of a mystery, and we’ve got to take the mystery out of it so that we all understand it perfectly,” said Assad.
“I’d love to go with you, Shay,” said Mooney. Assad welcomed the idea.
Select Board member John Waterman said the Marion pays more per student that Mattapoisett and Rochester due to higher assessed value of the town’s real estate.
FinCom member Bill Marvel presided over a summary of the CIPC’s prioritized list of capital requests.
Assad said that “there’s something wrong” is the Finance Committee is looking at capital projects in a substantially less-detailed manner than what is done at the department and CIPC levels.
Winters asked for information on CARES Act, ARPA and Chapter 90 money.
The Finance Committee was to meet with the Police and Fire departments on Wednesday and follow up with the Harbormaster, Recreation and Taber Library on February 16, ORR on March 2, and finally DPW on March 9.
Marion Finance Committee/Select Board
By Mick Colageo