Adams Draft Budget Calls for Retiree Health Benefit Cuts
 Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco said there can be no 'sacred cows' when it comes to budget reductions. |
This is the second in a series covering this week's review of the Adams town budget for fiscal 2016. The first article can be found here.
ADAMS, Mass. — The preliminary budget shows a decrease in the town's contribution towards retiree benefits.
Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco walked the Finance Committee and the Selectmen through a joint budget presentation on Tuesday at the Visitors Center. The presentation marked the first sequence of the budget process in the more than $14 million preliminary spending plan.
Several members of the public criticized plans to switch retiree health insurance support from the town from a split of 75/25 to 70/30 to reduce that line item.
Mazzucco said if this cut was not made, the projected cost would be well over the town's projected revenue.
"If we don't make a change to the retiree health care split … it would have been over $50,000 which is 100 percent of our new growth just for retiree health care, let alone all of the other expenses that we have," Mazzucco said.
The Employee/Retiree benefits budget has increased 8.06 percent from $1,082,984 to $1,170,300 and Mazzucco said spikes in health care have made it impossible for the town to support higher contributions.
Many residents understood why the cut was made, but they felt singled out because it only affected retirees. They felt the cut should be across the board for all town employees. Mazzucco said this would be somewhat challenging because the town just negotiated with the clerical and police unions. He said they most likely would not want to renegotiate.
Selectman Jeffrey Snoonian along with other board members said they would look at a townwide split to make it fairer.
"I talk to my parents every day; they are 70-something years old and they are going through all of this stuff," Snoonian said. "I think any cut, speaking for myself, given to the retirees should absolutely be looked at across the board for all of our employees across town."
Mazzucco said this decision to change the split across the board would ultimately lie with the selectmen and he anticipates the splits will decrease more and more each year.
"I think if we read the writing on the wall, health insurance splits are going to change for everyone going forward it," He said. "It is unfortunate and not ideal, but when you look at our overall fiscal situation, I'll be honest with you, I don't think we can have any sacred cows."
Finance Committee member Sandra Kleiner asked the selectmen if they would take a cut in their stipends to help support the town.
"Just in the spirit to be on board with what you are asking because the cuts are hurting people," Kleiner said. "It's not a lot but if everybody could give a percentage back, just the effort as a board would be willing to do something would mean a lot."
The board members said they would be willing to take a cut if cuts were being made across town. Kleiner asked Mazzucco the same question; he responded he would to take a cut.
Mazzucco said there will be a 19.29 percent increase in the treasurer's operating budget from $40,721 to $48,575 for additional legal fees so the town can more aggressively go after taxes and foreclosed homes.
"We need to make sure we are aggressive when going after taxes and we need to make sure we get our liens out in time so we are first in, like if someone goes into bankruptcy," he said. "When taxes go uncollected, eventually the rest of the community has to bite the bill for it."
Mazzucco said the technology operating budget is up 4.18 percent from $110,923 to $115,557. He said a big part of this increase is the purchase of software that would allow permitting requests for building, electrical, plumbing, and gas inspections to be done from computers.
Building Inspector Don Fitzgerald said the software will reduce staff costs.
"It affords the ability for anyone, contractors or homeowner, to apply for permitting from their home computer or from a computer from the library," Fitzgerald said. "It will eliminate us holding paper in mass files … it has proven in other towns to be a huge time-saver when it comes to moving back and forth and collecting information."
Mazzucca said this translates into a 22 percent reduction in the Building Inspector Personnel budget, which will eliminate a position. This budget will decrease from $151,714 to $118,341.
He said the emergency management budget will increase 21.83 percent for training for the director, which could lead to grant opportunities and the purchase of an emergency management shelter kit.
"We really need to build up our emergency management capabilities in town," he said. "With the elderly population it is critical that we have a shelter that is accessible and grants that we are able to get."
 The joint meetings this week on the budget are being held at the Adams Visitors Center to encourage more public participation. The next one is Thursday at 6 p.m. Coverage of Wednesday's meeting will post later Thursday. |
Mazzucco said there will be a small decrease of 25 percent in the town report budget in efforts to reduce amount of reports printed. He said each book costs more than $5 to produce and he would like to only print 350 instead of 500. He said the town report will be published online and he would like reduce the number more every year.
"Even though it's a small amount that doesn't really impede on many of the challenges we have, each one costs about $5.50 to print," he said. "It's a small amount but we really have to start looking at every dollar we spend."
He said the town administrator personnel budget has increased 3.60 percent from $132,505 $137,273. He said the operating budget has decreased 34.37 percent to $51,500 to $33,000. He said this is mostly because of $10,000 in engineering funds transferred to community development.
"They make better use of it and it adds to their pool of engineering projects and getting them off of the ground," he said. "If I do need engineering funds, I can always go to community development."
Community development's personnel budget has increased 2.91 percent and the operating budget, 16.66 percent. These increases are mostly because of the $10,000 in engineering funds transferred and an increased legal budget.
Mazzucco said debt service is up from $507,313 to $555,571 because the library renovation funds are now on the books.
Other budgets discussed were either left level funded or had only slight increases or decreases. These included the selectmen's budget, town counsel, Finance Committee, town accountant, assessor, and various boards and committees.
Tags: #adamsbudget, fiscal 2016, municipal budget,
