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The Finance Committee approved the budget Monday night.

Lanesborough FinCom Approves Budget, Cuts Health Insurance Lines

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
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LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Finance Committee approved its version of the budget on Monday, but that board's decision to cut close to $50,000 from health insurance lines has the town manager concerned.
 
"I really am concerned about the amount of money being cut out of health insurance," Town Manager Paul Sieloff said. "It is an unnecessary risk."
 
Sieloff had proposed an $11.4 million budget and the Board of Selectmen had already had its crack at it, cutting a few thousand from the proposal. The plan would raise taxes by 3 percent, the majority of which is for the Mount Greylock Regional School renovation and build. 
 
On Monday, the Finance Committee nickeled and dimed the budget for some three hours, cutting small amounts here and there. But Sieloff resisted the board's push to cut health insurance lines in both general coverage and in the schools. 
 
Finance Committee member Steven Wentworth compared actuals from previous years and the budget plan. When it came to the school health insurance, he said level-funding it would still provide close to $100,000 for unexpected changes. 
 
"It is still reasonably conservative to leave it flat," Wentworth said.
 
Sieloff had proposed increasing that line by some $38,000 to account for any possible changes. Through changes with the Berkshire Health Group plan offerings, the town is expecting to see a decrease in premiums. However, Sieloff wants to budget conservatively because the town has no control over changes. 
 
"It is the only account in this budget that could fly in a substantial direction without us having much control over it," Sieloff said.
 
The town manager says if just one employee opts to take health insurance that comes at a cost of around $15,000. If school officials add a position, then that could be another. And families could opt to take town insurance such as one recent town employee whose spouse lost a job and is now taking the town's benefits. 
 
"We're totally at the mercy of somebody getting married, having some other life-changing event," Sieloff said. "Two or three people blows that number out of the water."
 
After 10 months, the town has spent $801,039 on school health insurance and Wentworth said adding two more months that annualizes at $961,247. The budget was $1,057,000 so that would leave $96,125 unspent. Sieloff had asked for $1,095,196, an increase of $39,196 from the previous year. 
 
"I'm suggesting we can leave it flat," Wentworth said, and he received the support from the rest of the Finance Committee.
 
Should the line be overspent, Sieloff said the town would have to go to the reserve fund for the extra money. There is $40,000 in the reserve fund as a backup for a lot of town departments, Sieloff said, that is really only fine if the health insurance is properly funded. If the money for the insurance is not spent, then it would roll into free cash for use on projects next year. Sieloff said he doesn't see a huge benefit from cutting the money from the budget line because the worst case scenario is that the money comes back.
 
His pitch fell short with most of the committee voting in favor of it, with only Ronald Tinkham abstaining. 
 
Sieloff then fought Wentworth over a $10,000 reduction in the group insurance line. Sieloff said both lines have often been used to support one another, with transfers late in the year to cover any deficits. He had asked to raise that account by about $15,000.
 
In that line, Sieloff says he already knows about multiple employees and spouses joining the plan. Wentworth, however, did the same exercise and said the annualized total in that line would be $248,748. He added two new employees plus a spouse that he knew about and then added in a 5 percent margin for conservatism. That came to a budget of $311,301, which was $24,000 less than Sieloff was asking for. 
 
"This account will go up, absolutely," Wentworth said. "If we absolutely know these things are going to happen. I don't have a problem with it."
 
Listening to Sieloff's objections, the Finance Committee did opt to reduce the budget by $10,000 instead of the $24,000. That represents only a $5,000 increase from the previous year.
 
The Finance Committee's budget does include 1.5 percent in raises for non-union Town Hall staff, which had been contentious. The committee had fought it before but following in the Board of Selectmen's shoes by approving a compromised amount — Sieloff had originally proposed 2 percent. 
 
"If you want people to care enough to try and move further down in accomplishing things or being creative or innovative, it is good to have a healthy positive relationship. One of the ways to do that is to have moderate salary increases to recognize the work they are doing," Sieloff said. "It gives us the opportunity to help employee morale and keep our salaries somewhat in line with other related salaries."
 
Tinkham pushed for stipends to remain flat but there was some confusion over which stipends were increased. The elected town moderator is one stipend that stayed the same but inspectors had been included with raises. There was some debate over that but Tinkham failed to get support for separating the individual stipend employees — some with raises as low as $8. 
 
"It is not necessarily the money, it is the concept," Tinkham said.
 
All three budgets — the town manager's original, the Board of Selectmen, and the Finance Committee's — will go to town meeting. It is the Finance Committee's budget that is voted on at town meeting with the other two being informational.

Tags: Finance Committee,   fiscal 2018,   lanesborough_budget,   

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Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation Scholarships

LUDLOW, Mass. — For the third year, Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) will award scholarships to students from Lanesborough and Hancock. 
 
The scholarship is open to seniors at Mount Greylock Regional High School and Charles H. McCann Technical School. BWPCC will select two students from the class of 2024 to receive $1,000 scholarships.
 
The scholarships will be awarded to qualifying seniors who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program. Seniors must be from either Hancock or Lanesborough to be considered for the scholarship. Special consideration will be given to students with financial need, but all students are encouraged to apply.
 
The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12 turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). 
 
To be considered, students must submit all required documents including a letter of recommendation from their school counselor and a letter detailing their educational and professional goals. Application and submission details will be shared with students via their school counselors. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 19.
 
 MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities. 
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