It’s not getting any brighter….

A frontpage article in today’s (5/06/09) Republican newspaper (read the full story) paints a still gloomier picture of the state’s financial condition which could have a very large impact on Longmeadow’s FY09 and FY10 budgets.

Here are some quotes from the article….
- “Senators will be building their fiscal 2010 budget on an estimate that the state will collect $18.1 billion in revenues, nearly $1.5 billion less than the number used by the state House of Representatives.”

- “Senators may cut state aid to cities and towns more than the House.”

In an online Boston Globe article yesterday, it was reported that April state revenues were $456 million below expectations and the deficit for the remaining 3 months in FY2009 are now expected to drop $963 million below expections.

According to Michael Widmer, president of the Mass Taxpayers Foundation, the state may need to use up to $800 million from state’s rainy day fund to balance the the current FY2009 budget leaving only $500 million for FY2010.

Last week’s Town Meeting decision to vote on the FY2010 budget even though accurate numbers on state aid for Longmeadow were not available may not have been the right choice. At Town Meeting it was thought that because of revenue shortfalls, our FY2010 revenue would be $600,000 (or more) short of the FY2010 budget spending levels.

Because it looked like FY2010 state aid was going to be reduced further and create an even larger deficit the Longmeadow School Committee recommended that we “adjourn” the vote on the FY2010 budget until the Town Meeting was reconvened on June 2 so that additional state aid information could be assessed and the FY2010 budget adjusted if necessary.

Christine Swanson, Chairperson explained the logic of June 2 date selection as follows:

• If the Town Meeting voted and approved the budget on April 28, the Longmeadow School Department would have only two weeks (--> May 12) to issue potential “layoff notices” to teachers.
• June 2 was before the Annual Town Elections (June 9) so that the current town leaders (Select Board and School Committee) would be the making the needed budget corrections. In addition, there would be sufficient time before June 15- the latest date for teacher layoff notifications.

While SelectBoard chairman Paul Santaniello was in favor of adjournment of the budget vote, the Select Board was split (Santaniello/Barkett --> favored postponing vote, Grady/Scibelli --> against postponing vote) so the Select Board did not have a recommendation for the Town Meeting to consider.

Select Person Kathy Grady as well as a number of Town Meeting members felt that it was unlikely that even on June 2 there would not be much additional information on state aid and because we have $2 million in the Operational Stabilization Fund (aka “rainy day” fund) that we could use it if necessary to fund any town revenue shortfalls.

The Finance Committee also supported the recommendation by the School Committee for adjournment on the budget vote. Chairman Mark Barowsky also emphasized that the town should not be so quick to count on the Operation Stabilization Fund because it was his opinion at that time that the state’s financial condition and funding for FY2009 and FY2010 was going to continue to worsen.

I have been writing about this impending financial crisis since early January (see 1/16/09 post- A Financial Tsunami is Heading Toward Us! and things have only gotten much worse since then.
At that time I asked “What are town leaders (Select Board/ Town Manager + School Committee) doing right now to prepare for the tsunami wave that has already been formed in Boston and is heading west towards us?

Comment: It would appear that we have experienced additional financial “aftershocks” in Boston and a financial tsunami is still heading our way!

Despite the uptick since March in the stock market and calmer financial markets, it is likely that unemployment will continue to increase (a lagging indicator of the economy) and state + local revenues will continue to erode for some time- probably well into 2010. It seems to me that prudent fiscal policy for Longmeadow would be to use the Operational Stabilization Fund only as a last resort. If FY2010 appears to be a difficult year, FY2011 may be even worse and it would be prudent to have some remaining financial resources to soften any hardship.

A couple of additional issues….

1. There are no cost of living adjustments (school or town employees) included with the FY2010 budget that was voted at last week’s Annual Town Meeting. With both town employee and school department teachers contracts expiring in June and August, there is a potential increase in overall costs of $300,000 with every % increase in COLA.

2. Based upon what I heard at the town meeting, it would appear that next Tuesday, May 12 (also the Select Board preliminary run-off election) is the last day for the School Department to issue layoffs notices. If there are none issued, there can be no teacher layoffs in FY2010.

A couple of questions for our town leaders….

1. When will the collective bargaining agreements with the teachers union as well as the fire and police unions be signed? Will they include any cost of living adjustments?

2. Given all of the FY2010 budget uncertainties, will there be any teacher layoff notices issued before the May 12 deadline?

3. How do you plan to balance the FY09 and FY10 budgets? Are we going to simply use the “rainy day” fund and not worry at this time about future financial revenue shortfalls?

Tonight is the Select Board forum at Glenbrook Middle School (7 PM) in which eight candidates currently running for Select Board will be participating- three of which will be elected and be deeply involved with our FY2009 and FY2010 budget problems.

Take the time to attend the meeting, ask a question or simply watch the broadcast on LCTV. See the event notice for additional information on this important forum.

FY2010 Budget

Based upon the agenda for tomorrow's (2/23/09) Select Board meeting, it appears that we will be getting a 15 minute review of the Town Manager's FY2010 Budget Report.

I would encourage Longmeadow residents to watch this discussion on LCTV at 7:15 PM. Update: The SB meeting on 2/23 will not be broadcast LIVE.

With only 15 minutes, I suspect that our town manager will only be able to review overall budget highlights. 15 minutes seems much too short a time for such an important topic so hopefully the SB chairman will extend this allocated time.

I am particularly interested in how this budget report handles the potential shortfall in revenue to cover the upcoming town employee collective agreements that are expiring at the end of the current FY2009 year. I'm guessing that the proposed balanced budget will not include any provision for possible town employee related salary increases for the FY2010 budget nor budget any funds in this direction or include any contingency plans.

The Longmeadow School Department proposed budget for FY2010 that was approved last week by the School Committee which was $83K less than the current FY2009 also did not provide for any teacher salary COLA increases. The SC did acknowledge that any teacher salary increases must be met with additional school department budget cutbacks in order to meet the FY2010 budget commitment to the Select Board.

I would expect that the Town Manager and Select Board also need to work out the details on how to fund the FY2009 revenue shortfalls before they can fully understand all of the revenue sources such as "free cash" and the operational stabilization fund for FY2010.

Everything that I read in the newspaper seems to suggest "a not to worry attitude" and that Longmeadow is much better off than the rest of the town and cities in Massachusetts. That attitude seems strange given all of the budget issues that we have faced during the past couple of years.

Stay tuned for an interesting budget season.

Reality Check

Below are some recent news headlines that paint a pretty dreary near term local economic future....

click here to read full story

click here to read full story online

Recent cutbacks in state aid by Governor Patrick (see previous LongmeadowBuzz blog postings) to Massachusetts cities and towns are strongly related to the worldwide recession and appear to be getting worse. In October, Gov. Patrick reduced FY09 spending by over 1 billion dollars and just recently announced additional large cutbacks in aid to cities and towns for both FY09 and FY10. My guess is that we haven't seen the whole story and more cuts should be anticipated.

Because of this trend in the global economy I believe that at least in the short term (next 1-2 years) the finances of Longmeadow will be stretched to the limit. Many of us have already reacted in our personal finances by significantly reducing spending and building contingency plans (increased savings, etc...) for financial survival.

This week's vote by the School Committee on the FY10 school budget ($31.2 million) and reported in this week's Longmeadow News highlighted the need for 11 staff layoffs in order to meet the FY10 budget guidelines set by the Select Board and the Town Manager.

I attended the recent public forum held by the School Committee at Longmeadow HS on the upcoming School Dept FY10 budget and was very impressed by the large amount of effort that was involved. The proposed budget included some difficult staffing reduction decisions in order to meet the budget guidelines. (The proposed FY10 budget is ~ $83,000 lower than FY09 budget.)

My concern is that the proposed budget did not include any allowance for "cost of living adjustments" (COLA) that might be involved with the upcoming teacher contract negotiations (the current contract expires at the end of this school year). In response to a question that I asked, Superintendent Hart indicated that she "hoped" that some agreeement could be reached before the Town Meeting in April to allow the budget process to be finalized.

(note: The last teacher's contract negotiation in Longmeadow extended more than one year past the prior contract expiration date and resulted in the need for a $2.1 million Proposition 2½ override .)

To put some economic prospective on this concern, professional salaries (I'm assuming mostly teachers) in the FY10 budget are $18.6 million dollars. (It should be noted that this number does not include health care and other related school dept employee benefits which according to the FY09 budget report was 3.8 million dollars) .

If a 2.5% COLA was negotiated it would add approximately $465,000 to the proposed FY10 budget. With current budget process, the likely way to achieve this savings would be through a reduction of teachers and/or other staff positions since salaries are ~75% of the total school budget. Obviously this approach would not be in the best interests of our schools or community.

While I do not know all of the specifics of the teacher salary structure, I do know that many teachers in our school system will receive "step increases" even if a 0% COLA was implemented.

If you have been following the budget process for the past couple of years, you will have become aware of the large impact of teacher and other town employees salaries on the budget of our town.

I believe that additional town employee contract negotiations are also underway which will put additional pressure on our FY10 budget.

Given the current economic conditions that surround us, I would like to propose a one year contract and freeze on salaries (that is, a 0% COLA for FY10) for both town and school employees so that we do not lose key people that are important to maintaining the quality of life in our town. Contracts for FY11 and FY12 can be negotiated once the economy stabilizes and future town revenues are more visible.

As a community we need to react in a prudent manner or else the future of our town may become very distressed caused by drastic cuts in town and school services dramatically affecting our quality of life.
________________________________________________

The LongmeadowBuzz blog invites both pro and con agruments to this proposal for posting. Comments are moderated but are more likely to appear if you add your name and address. Consider the posting of such comments on the LongmeadowBuzz blog as a Internet "letter to the editor".

FY2010/ FY2011 Budgets

During the Massachusetts Municipal Association Conference the Governor stated that Chapter 70 money (State Aid for Education) would be "level-funded" under his proposal for FY2010 - with everything else as a potential cut target.

At the Regional Board of Selectmens' meeting last week, State Senator Canderas reinforced the Governor's comments and further added that the vibe in Boston was that 2011 would worse than 2010.

As we read, listen, and absorb experts' opinions on the impact of our daily and future economic condition - I would prefer to construct 'conservative' budgets. Therefore, in terms of the FY2010 and FY2011 budgets - to create the former without consideration of the latter would place Longmeadow in a precarious position to meet services, secure bonding, or generally function as a thriving concern.

My approach to budget strategies has always been to listen to each professional regarding their needs as they view them from their departments, weigh priorities and shared values/ missions, and finally craft an acceptable proposal. The key here is getting the 'best snapshot' projections as well as agreed upon priorities, gain consensus with committees/dept heads/taxpayers, and take action. I take this very seriously and will continue to gather the best information to make credible decisions.

Robert Barkett, Longmeadow Select Board

"....Longmeadow Face(s) hard choices on looming budget cuts

The following story appeared in The Republican on Thursday, January 29
“East Longmeadow, Hampden, Longmeadow, Ludlow and Wilbraham face hard choices on looming budget cuts” (click link to view full story)

Here are some excerpts…

Last week, Longmeadow Superintendent of Schools E. Jahn Hart announced the elimination of at least six teaching positions throughout the district for fiscal 2010. The School Department is currently working with a projected $31.2 million with $28 million coming from the town's general fund. Hart said she does not know what will happen with the layoffs.

"We respond to decisions at a town level, so we will see after the Monday night Select Board meeting what changes we will have to make," she said

Editor’s Note: While the $31.2 million proposed school dept budget for FY2010 is $83,000 less than the FY2009 budget it does not include a COLA increase for teacher’s salaries. A 3% COLA increase could add $550,000 to the school dept FY2010 budget.
__________________________________________________
Longmeadow Finance Director Paul J. Pasterczyk said the town is currently working with a $47 million budget. He said the town will take an estimated hit of $335,000 in the next fiscal year, much less than the anticipated $950,000.

Town Manager Robin L. Crosbie said the governor's cuts will not have as big an impact on the budget as they expected."We had already planned for deeper cuts, so this isn't as bad as we initially thought," Crosbie said. "The accounts that were targeted are not ones that we get a lot of money from. We do not get any additional assistance and only a small amount of lottery aid, so this has a fairly minimal impact on us."

However, Crosbie said the town has to look at the future and the reduction in revenues. "There have already been drops in local receipts and because of that we have indefinitely stopped hiring for positions that have become open in town departments," she said.
__________________________________________________

Editor’s Note: Hopefully, we may be getting some insight during Monday’s (February 2) Select Board meeting as to how the town plans to meet the expected shortfall in revenue for the current FY2009 budget estimated to be ~$400,000. However, looking at the SB meeting agenda, it doesn’t look like much time has been allocated for discussion of this subject.

Given that the economic situation at both the state and national levels seems to be worsening, the town should anticipate and plan contingencies for still greater cuts in state aid and other town income as we move forward.

The numbers are in!

According to the numbers posted today on the Massachusetts Dept of Revenue website, Longmeadow's state aid for the current FY2009 will be reduced by $169,442 which is higher than my original estimate of $146,000. Below are the official numbers for FY2009 (original), FY2009 (revised) and FY2010 (projected).


Combining this number ($169,442) with the reduced excise tax receipts, lower investment income and overbudget snow removal costs (total = $225,000) that were discussed at the last Select Board meeting adds up to almost $400,000 which must be cut before the fiscal year ends on June 30.

Looking to next year's budget... it doesn't get any better. Comparison of the original FY2009 state aid with the proposed FY2010 state aid shows a shortfall in revenue to Longmeadow of almost $500,000.

According to Paul Pasterczyk, town finance director there is ~ $917,000 of "Free Cash" and approximately $2.13 million in the Operational Stabilization Fund. Both of these sources which are the town's reserves can be used to reduce the current deficit.

While the FY2010 proposed school dept budget is $83K less than FY2009 (see earlier post), it does not include a "cost of living adjustment" or COLA for teachers since their contract ends at the end of the current school year. If a new teachers' contract were negotiated that provided for a 3% COLA increase, it would increase the proposed $31.3 million school budget for FY2010 by $550,000!

The current financial environment suggests that the FY2010 budget process which has been underway for some time looks like it may be very difficult.

Stay tuned!

An update on budget cuts...

After reading Gov. Patrick's speech yesterday at the Massachusetts Municipal Association I learned that the proposed 9.7% cut will be applied to the "Lottery aid" and "Additional Assistance" line items in the FY09 Cherry Sheets.

Note: “additional assistance” provides unrestricted general purpose aid to municipalities

See summary below.

[click table to enlarge]

For Longmeadow the FY09 total of these line items is: $1.51 million .... so it looks like the financial hit will be $146,000. This is only my guess and not an official number.

It is possible that Gov. Patrick may elect to apply some other formula to decide how to distribute these cuts particular given the fact that the city of Boston has such a high amount of “additional assistance” in their cherry sheet allocation. A straight application of the 9.7% cut translates to $22 million cut for the city of Boston of which $16 million comes from the “additional assistance” line item.

For Longmeadow it looks like the underperformance of investment income and excise tax receipts (-$200,000) as FY09 revenue sources + higher than budgeted snow removal costs (-$25,000) that were discussed at this week's SB meeting (reported in an earlier post) will be larger items.

At this point total budget cuts required for FY09 may total ~ $371,000.

Looking forward to FY2010 Governor Patrick said that he will be proposing a level funding of Chapter 70 funds for education and a significant cut in “Lottery aid” and “additional assistance” funding with the net result of a total state aid reduction for cities and towns of 7.1%.

For Longmeadow this FY2010 budget reduction would amount to ~$480,000. It looks like the upcoming FY2010 budget process will be very difficult.

On Wednesday, January 28 the official FY09 budget cuts for each town will be announced. Hopefully, it will be equal to or less than the $146,000 estimate.

Cuts in state aid are announced

Some “relatively” good news…

Today, Governor Deval Patrick has announced cuts of state aid to cities and towns will total “only” $128 million as compared to earlier estimates as high as $500 million.

See full article on Boston.com.

Gov. Patrick also announced that the $128 million in cuts would not affect the state aid to cities and towns for public education but did not indicate how these latest cuts would be allocated town-by-town across the state.

With the new information and applying them equally based upon original state aid allocations ($128M/$5.3B = 2.4%), our "guess" for reduced state aid for Longmeadow is ~ $205,000. Add this number to the $200K shortfall in other town revenue highlighted during the Select Board meeting earlier this week, the town will likely need to cut ~ $400K in expenses for the FY2009 budget year.

It will be interesting to see how the Town Manager/ Select Board and School Committee address this revenue shortfall.

An update from the Select Board

.. and not much good news!

At the Longmeadow Select Board regular meeting on January 20 some additional information related to the FY09 budget crisis was provided…

• Finance Director, Paul Pasterczyk stated that there likely will be a FY09 revenue shortfall of ~ $200K originating from lower investment income (-$107K) and lower excise tax receipts (-$90K). Both of these areas will likely impact FY10 budget revenue as well.
  
• Mr. Pasterczyk updated the SB regarding snow removal costs and stated that the current expenditures were $25K over budget and likely to increase as the winter progresses.
  
• Town Manager, Robin Crosbie updated the SB regarding FY09 budget actions and said that she has asked all town departments to develop budget reduction contingency plans but at this point has not requested specific “appropriation turnbacks” or expenditure reductions. In addition, purchase orders over $500.00 are being carefully scrutinized before she approves them in an effort to curtail unnecessary spending. Ms. Crosbie indicated that a large portion of current expenditures are directed at maintenance and repair items to keep the various departments operational. Bobby Barkett asked if the oversight could be extended to purchase orders > $100…. Ms. Crosbie said that she would followup with each town department.
  
• Ms. Crosbie stated that the fiscal problems currently being addressed by Gov. Patrick that will be impacting Longmeadow and other towns will likely require a detailed review of prioritized town services to determine which ones will be impacted- both in the current FY09 and FY10 budgets.
  
  Ms. Crosbie highlighted that it is possible that the cuts in state aid may not be applied equally across all towns and cities and that a per capita income adjustment or similar factor may be applied… which doesn’t bode well for Longmeadow’s share of the cuts.
  
• Ms. Crosbie wants to maintain current headcount in order to retain key experience and knowledge within town departments. Furthermore, there is no excess in current staffing to provide required municipal services. Clerical staffing is being rotated from department to department when needed to complete specific projects. However, she acknowledged that salaries are a very large factor within the overall town government budget and that large reductions in expenditures will be difficult to achieve without staffing reductions.
  
  In an effort to curtail FY09 expenses, two open job town government vacancies will not be filled.

Overall, not much good news from last night’s meeting. In fact, it looks like there will be an additional shortfall of ~ $200K in town revenue that will need to be compensated in addition to what the state announces late next week.

The SB seemed resigned to wait until the "financial tsnami" hits Longmeadow at the end of next week and will take up discussion of what to do next at their regular meeting on February 2.

Stay tuned to the LongmeadowBuzz blog for additional updates.

A Financial Tsunami is Heading Toward Us!

These headlines are from this past week’s Springfield Republican (week of January 12, 2009) and highlight the continuing fiscal crisis facing the the state of Massachusetts. The news stories highlight that there is an need to cut another $1 billion (vs. total budget of $28.1 billion) by the end of January from the fiscal 2009 budget because of shrinking tax collection revenue. This is in addition to the $1 billion worth of cuts already imposed last October which did not include aid to cities and towns.

A total of $2 billion of cuts in the current FY09 ending on June 30 are needed.

Governor Deval Patrick said, “ We’ll apportion the pain- and it’s sure to be painful- as equitably as possible and as broadly as possible.”

This past week the state legislature gave Governor Patrick the authority to cut state aid to cities and towns but limited it to cuts of $500 million for the current fiscal year. Gov. Patrick’s new authority is also somewhat limited when it comes to cutting general education for a single school district. He cannot cut it to less than the “foundation budget” which is what the state calculates is the minimum $$ needed to educate students. While I do not know what the current foundation budget is for Longmeadow schools, I suspect that it is much lower than the current school budget so the budget cut limitation is not going to protect our state aid for Longmeadow schools which is currently $6.2 million.

Here is a possible scenario that is very scary….

In the current FY2009 the state budget is providing a total of $5.3 billion in local aid to cities and towns.

Current FY 2009 financial aid to Longmeadow is as follows:

Schools- $3.9 million

Town- $2.3 million

Cuts of $500 million to cities and towns represent a 9.4% cut ($500 million/ $5.3 billion). For Longmeadow this might translate to state aid cuts of $367,000 for schools and $216,000 for the town- a total of almost $600,000!

Given that the FY2009 is more than half completed, reductions of this size would be very difficult and result in a significant reduction of town and school dept services. If there was significant free cash available to reduce this unanticipated deficit, then the FY2010 budget would be significantly impacted.

My question is:

What are town leaders (Select Board/ Town Manager + School Committee) doing right now to prepare for the tsunami wave that has already been formed in Boston and is heading west towards us?

Let's hope that for some reason that this financial tsnami is deflected and heads in a different direction! We should know by the end of January!

Is there a looming financial crisis for Longmeadow?

Two months ago Governor Deval Patrick announced significant cuts in budgets for most state departments after a $1.4 billion state budget shortfall. At the time there was no impact on local funding for cities and town. However, the Boston Globe reported on December 31 (see online story) that the governor was preparing up to $1.0 billion in additional cuts for the current fiscal year which may involve some cuts in local town/city funding.

From this 12/31/08 Boston Globe article…

“Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he was preparing for up to $1 billion in additional budget cuts, raising the specter of reductions in aid to municipalities, more layoffs of state employees, and drastic cutbacks in the services that state government provides to its residents.”

"There's a lot of pain, and it's going to have to be spread around," Patrick told reporters during a 30-minute briefing in his State House office. "Nobody's enjoying this. This is incredibly difficult."

Possible emergency budget cuts being considered by the state will not effect FY2010…. cuts in local budgets to compensate for less state aid will need to be made now! In FY2009. Cuts made in the middle of a fiscal year are much more difficult to make because the budget funding deficit must be made up before July 1.

In the current FY2009 the state budget is providing $5.3 billion in local aid to cities and towns. Current financial aid to Longmeadow is as follows:

FY2009
Schools- $3.9 million
Town- $2.3 million
Total- $6.2 million

In the yesterday’s Springfield Republican (1/04/09), it was reported that local western Massachusetts cities and towns were expecting a 5-10% cut in state for the upcoming FY2010… for Longmeadow that could be as much as $850,000. Let's hope that the Governor Patrick does not cut FY2009 local aid to cities and towns.

















To add some additional worry for the current fiscal year, it was also reported in yesterday’s Springfield Republican that current motor vehicle excise tax collections for many towns/cities are down significantly for the current fiscal year.

Based upon the budget information (see page 2 of ATM report) presented at the 2008 Annual Town Meeting, Longmeadow was expecting $2.15 million in excise tax revenue for the current FY2009 fiscal year budget. A short fall of 10% would mean that the town would have to cut $215,000 from the current FY2009 budget.

In past years, the challenge to town leaders has been to prepare a balanced budget that meets the needs of our town for the upcoming fiscal year starting July 1. Let’s hope that we do not have make emergency cuts in town services before July 1 because of revenue funding shortfalls.

Ballot Questions

There are two questions on the upcoming Annual Town Election ballot.

Question 1: Shall the Town of Longmeadow be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition two and one-half, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bond issued in order to repair the Longmeadow High School roof?

Question 2: Shall the Town of Longmeadow be allowed to exempt from the provisions of proposition two and one-half, so called, the amounts required to pay for the bond issued in order to repair the Greenwood Center roof?

Below are the two warrant articles at the Annual Town Election from which these two questions surfaced.

ARTICLE 20
The Moderator declared a unanimous affirmative vote that the Town authorize the Treasurer to borrow the sum of $100,000 for repair of the Longmeadow High School roof, provided that this appropriation shall be contingent on passage of a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion.

ARTICLE 21
The Moderator declared a unanimous affirmative vote that the Town authorize the Treasurer to borrow the sum of $375,000 for repair of the Greenwood Center roof, provided that this appropriation shall be contingent upon passage of a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion.

Assuming 5% interest rate the annual cost of these projects is ~ $24,000.

If either of these two ballot questions is not passed, then the corresponding project will not go forward.

These two articles cover much needed infrastructure repairs... I urge that everyone vote YES on both of these two questions.

FY09 Budget Forum- Questions/ Comments

Below is series of video clips of questions and comments from the Town Manager's FY09 Budget forum held on March 6 and is provided by LongmeadowBiz, LLC. Video segments used for these clips were provided through the courtesy of Longmeadow Community TV and is gratefully acknowledged.

School budget cuts are not level service

As I read and understand it, the town manager is asking the School Committee to cut their budget for FY2009. This is unfair to the schools and to the children.

This is not what was agreed to by the Finance Committee, the School Committee and the Select Board in September of 2007, when they agreed to put an override vote before the town on 6 November 2007.

The vote of the School Committee was unanimous to support the override. The Finance Committee vote was 5 to 1 in support.
The Select Board vote was 3 - 2. Grady and Santaniello voted "no".

Source: The Longmeadow News, 20 September 2007, page 1.

The voters voted approval of the override. It was close, but the override passed.

Here is the tabulation of that November vote.

Precinct A B C D E Total

Voters 1051 931 869 983 841 4675

Yes Voters 654 480 334 418 453 2339

% 62% 52% 38% 42% 54% 50.03% (Winner)

No Voters 397 451 535 564 388 2335

% 38% 48% 62% 58% 46% 49.95%

If we want to revisit that kind of division, the current proposal invites that level of conflict. People voted in good faith in November for the override because of the belief that it would provide a level service budget for the future.

A cut in the school budget is not a level service budget.

For further information, lets look at the record:
Source:

The Republican

Override passes by 4 votes

Wednesday, November 07, 2007
By ELIZABETH ROMÁN
eroman@repub.com

LONGMEADOW - Town officials clapped and cheered after learning that residents had approved - by just a four-vote margin - a $2.15 million Proposition 2½ override at yesterday's special Town Election.

"This is a great day for Longmeadow," said School Committee Chairman Geoffrey P. Weigand, who waited for the results at the Community House along with members from several boards. This is the third override the town has passed in 16 years.

Town Clerk Katherine Ingram said 40.65 percent of the 11,487 voters in town came out to vote.


In September the Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee voted in favor of the override, which allows the town to raise property taxes above the annual 2½ percent limit set by state law.

During two public forums members from all of the boards told citizens that severe cuts would be made if the override did not pass.

Resident John J. Fitzgerald was part of the Friends of Longmeadow, a group of citizens gathered under a tent with signs reading "vote yes" and "support the override."

"This override will help maintain our quality of life," Fitzgerald, a retired teacher, said. "We have to pay to keep the level of services provided to the town."

The $2.15 million was an amount created this summer by the Budget Strategies Committee, which was made up of two members of the Finance Committee, two members of the School Committee, and two members of the Select Board.

The override will balance the fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009 budgets. The money is also expected to fund some of the 2010 budget.

At a Nov. 1 town forum Select Board member William G. Scibelli said the town is $1.4 million in debt and is expected to show a deficit of $2.5 million next year and $3.3 million in 2010. The current budget totals $53.7 million.

Select Board Chairman Hal W. Haberman said he was glad that residents recognized the importance of the vote.

"Longmeadow is a great place to live," Haberman said. " This override will help us pay for the important services the town provides."

The money from the override will be allocated at a Town Meeting to be held at the high school Nov. 27.

FY09 Budget Forum- March 6, 2008

Below is a video clip of the FY09 Budget presentation by Robin Crosbie, Longmeadow Town Manager. This clip is approximately 20 minutes in length. The best method for viewing is to print out the set of slides used by Ms. Crosbie because the details are difficult to read in the video. Due to a technical problem the first 10 minutes of the presentation are missing. Questions and comments will be posted during the followup Q/A will also be posted.



[Make sure that you "double click" on the viewer start button.] If problems are encountered with the above embedded video player, try clicking on the link below...

FY09 Budget Forum

[This web broadcast of the Town Manager's FY 2009 Budget Report is provided by LongmeadowBiz, LLC. Video used for the broadcast was provided through the courtesy of Longmeadow Community TV and is gratefully acknowledged.]

The FY09 Budget Process Has Begun...

On March 6 Town Manager Robin Crosbie conducted a budget review for the upcoming FY2009 at Glenbrook Middle School. Ms. Crosbie as required by the Longmeadow Town Charter prepared a “balanced budget” for an upcoming review by the Select Board.

The full Budget Report is now available online for review. In addition, the slides used for this presentation are also available.

The total FY2009 budget is $51.4 million which is a 6.17% increase vs. FY2008.

A key part of the budget is the impact of Proposition 2½ which limits the amount of increase in property taxes to 2½%. Total revenue from property taxes is ~ $35.8 million which is an increase of $995K over FY08 (see above table). With rising costs across many areas, Ms. Crosbie stated that with the proposed FY09 budget it was not possible to maintain level services. Below are two tables showing the increase of fund allocations for various portions of the town budget.



[click to enlarge]

LongmeadowBuzz is interested in questions from town residents for the Town Manager, School Committee, Finance Committee and others involved in the budgeting process. We help to provide information that will make this year's budget process a success. Add a comment to this posting and we will try to get an answer. See our help section for posting a comment to this blog.