The Marion Finance Committee met on February 15 to discuss the Fiscal Year 2023 town budget and set a schedule for department heads to report for interviews.
The operating budget for the next fiscal year is at a $321,108 deficit, according to Finance Director Judy Mooney.
“Currently I do not have a balanced budget. We would not be able to go to Town Meeting like this. Of course, we’d have to talk and figure out how we could fund it,” Mooney told the committee.
Finance Committee Chairman Shay Assad assigned sections of the budget for each of the committee members to have a deeper look before those departments present to the committee at large. The February 16 meeting addressed Articles 2, 3 and 4, Marion’s FY24 Operating Budget and the Water and Sewer Enterprise budgets.
Mooney said union contracts are coming up for Police, DPW and clerical employees. She noted that her own 20-year mark has been reached, resulting in a scheduled increase.
In discussing the increase in the FY24 Police budget, Mooney told the committee that the existing officer serving as a school resource officer is being funded through the department’s operating budget. She explained that the SRO is reporting to the school rather than the Police Department in a PILOT program.
Every year there is a cruiser in the police budget, explained Mooney.
Regarding the Fire Department, license renewals and increase in the fire line are the big issues.
“One of the other issues we will need to talk about and make a recommendation to the Select Board is the whole issue of service to Tabor (Academy.) The Fire Department spends a substantial amount of their time at Tabor,” said Assad, who recommended Chief Brian Jackvony figure out exactly how much time is spent there.
Committee member Margie Baldwin pointed out that Marion EMS has a fee schedule, but Assad said “all kinds of stuff” adds up outside of those hard categories. Assad said both the Fire and Police chiefs are diligent and trying to do right by the town.
Marine Resources (Waterways account) will see increases in salary, overtime and boat maintenance. Assad said Mooney will spend time with the MRC to explain the “indirects” (assessments to the department for services provided by town employees.)
The Marine Center, which will cost $600,000 more to construct and has less state support than originally anticipated, is no longer a sure thing. Mooney suggested that the department can increase its fee structure and close the gap.
“I made it clear and they know this. That’s not a taxpayer issue. That’s either the fees have to support it or the (new) building’s got to come down, I think,” said Assad. “I don’t know how everybody else feels, but that’s the way it is.”
“I thought we weren’t going to build it if we couldn’t afford it,” said committee member Peter Winters. “We have to get all the money in.”
Mooney, who has also been serving as interim town administrator since Jay McGrail left Marion to become Middleborough’s town manager, will give way to new Town Administrator Geoff Gorman on March 1. Meantime, Gorman has been getting acquainted with town operations, expanding on a weekly framework of days spent by attending a recent bond-rating meeting and also sat with Assad and Mooney to discuss Marion’s budget season.
Capital requests will be taken up at a later meeting, but Mooney offered the committee a quick clarification and forecast of that discussion, especially as it affects the ladder truck that fell on the Capital Improvements Planning Committee’s priority list as presented to the Select Board.
The clarification was to point out that the CIPC’s list was based on financial conditions prior to realization of an increase in free cash, but Mooney also said capital requests should not be judged according to fund sourcing.
“This year we’ve got a lot of free cash … the sewer, we won’t be able to support everything,” she said. The ladder (fire) truck dropped $400,000 in projected price down to $1,200,000.
At its original price, Mooney said the ladder truck would have taken up half of Marion’s free cash and therefore was categorized into a debt exclusion. Now, free cash is not out of the question.
“That’s kind of what it’s all about, to make sure that what we’re appropriating fits into the tax (outcome.) Whatever we appropriate at Town Meeting is going to affect the tax rate – bottom line,” said Mooney, referring to the state Department of Revenue spreadsheet sent out to the committee members.
Assad said, based on a look back at the past five years, growth was readjusted from $75,000 to $100,000. Mooney said she would like to work more with the Board of Assessors, telling the committee that bringing the number up would ease the budget process.
Student enrollment in the public schools was discussed, and Assad said that while Rochester’s enrollment is increasing, Mattapoisett’s is going down and Marion’s “slightly down.”
“I suspect that the issue at ORR is not going to be the budget itself. … The minimum contribution is established on the basis of your average per-capita income and the total valuation of the town,” said Assad. “And there was a significant increase in the valuation – in our valuation even though it was a valuation year – that’s going to impact us. … From a minimum-contribution view, we’re going to have a higher (school-budget impact.)”
The effect, he explained, is that while Marion’s enrollment is relatively steady and less than the other two Tri-Towns, falling enrollment increases Marion’s relative percentage and drives costs upward.
Mooney said she was receiving feedback supporting Assad’s outlook.
“When are we going to get to those incremental levels?” asked Assad, trying to quantify thresholds for adding or decreasing faculty.
Committee member Jay Pateakos said the school committees have for years tried to figure that out.
“It’s always been an issue where we’re spending way more than we’re getting, and their solution is, ‘Well we’re filling these classrooms.’ But that’s one classroom, and the next classroom is too big and they have to hire another teacher …,” he said. “It’s too deep for us, and it’s the school committee’s thing, but from a finance committee’s perspective we’re always asking about school choice. We always want to know more, and we get very little information. It’s always been frustrating.”
Assad said what the committee needs to do is find out how many students are coming in via the School Choice program, how much revenue is realized from the program and then figure out if, without those students, could a staff reduction be justified. If so, then School Choice should be on the table for discussion. If not, then School Choice only adds revenue to the school district.
Assad said Marion has fewer students attending Upper Cape Technical high school than Mattapoisett and Rochester have attending Old Colony RVTHS.
Committee member Bill Marvel reminded the committee that Town Meeting voters can affect change via disapproval of the budget.
Based on the past three years, Marion’s “actual revenues” have been at $2,500,000, representing a $300,000 gain. The line says $425,000, but $125,000 is allocated to the ORR track rehabilitation project.
Water and Sewer Enterprise funds are offset by the loss of Lockheed Martin. Toby Burr, representing the Select Board, told the committee that the developer working with the town on redeveloping the former Lockheed Martin property has developed the Faunce Corner Road section of North Dartmouth.
Indirect costs to the Water and Sewer Enterprise funds have lowered with Becky Tilden’s promotion to director of the Public Works Department.
Mooney also reported a significant increase at the Board of Health, where a 30-hour agent is needed but the hire has been for 25 hours.
Baldwin asked where the wiggle room is in the overall 5.29% budget increase. Assad said the town does not yet have ORR’s proposed budget.
“The reality of it is, if we didn’t have this pension whack we’ve got, we’d be within 60-K of having a balanced budget,” said Assad. “So we’re having to make up for this pension hit that we took. I do think … we have the money (via free cash), but is it wise to draw that down …?”
Beyond the issue of a police presence inside Sippican Elementary School, no department is pushing to add personnel.
While the ORR budget is always a concern in the Tri-Towns, the apportionment, said Assad, is something that the towns cannot control and a potentially challenging factor for Marion.
“The budget could actually go down and our share of it go up, and it’s got a lot to do with the property values in the town,” said Assad.
Assad publicly credited Mooney for her fiscal responsibility in managing the town’s resources, putting Marion in a position to be able to deal with the current challenge.
Finally, Assad told the members that the committee was due the day after the meeting to receive a preliminary version of the ORR FY24 budget that has not yet been approved by the school committee.
The Marion Finance Committee was next scheduled to meet on Wednesday, February 22, at 7:00 pm.
Marion Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo