ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen on Wednesday reviewed the draft of a $15,643,072 fiscal 2019 budget that will yield a decreased tax rate.
Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan introduced the spending plant that represents a .48 percent increase over fiscal 2018's $15.5 million budget and said it is a level-serviced budget.
"Simply put we are holding steady with the budget where increases are by and large to meet rising fixed costs ... rather than major new investments," Cesan said. "This budget will thus yield small increases in spending in some areas but will not require taxing to the levy limit or spending every dollar that we have."
Town Accountant Mary Beverly added that the town will break from previous years and use $250,000 from free cash to offset the tax rate.
"Several of you asked that we return some of the free cash back to the taxpayers in the form of a reduced tax rate," Beverly said. "I know that it has been said by the prior town administrator that this is not what you do with free cash but some of you feel that the people deserve some of the money they were overcharged in previous years."
Beverly noted that although the fiscal 2019 budget is far from being approved and most likely will fluctuate, she predicts residents will see a nearly 30 cent decrease.
"At the current shift of 12 percent it would come out to about $21.86 [per $1,000] tax rate, which is down 35 cents from fiscal '18," she said.
Chairman John Duval said he was happy to see that the budget is providing some relief to residents.
"This is a big difference from last year's, in a good direction in my opinion," Duval said. "The right thing to do I agree is not to do this but that is in the best of times which we haven't had here ... not yet."
Beverly outlined the two capital outlays and said the first one draws $710,447 from appropriated taxes and will replenish the reserve account, fund debt service, purchase a new police cruiser, fund technology upgrades and make state-mandated upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant.
The second capital outlay will draw $524,260 from free cash that will be used to address deferred maintenance on public buildings and purchase new equipment such as a new Department of Public Works truck.
This will leave $571,876 in free cash.
Breaking down the budget further, the proposed personnel service spending is $6,062,389. This is a 4.45 percent increase.
The operating budget is $2,196,322 which is a 1.49 percent increase.
The assessments for the Adams-Cheshire Regional and McCann school districts will be $5,907,653.
Some $10,713,614 will be collected through property taxes to fund the budget. With this budget, the town's levy capacity would be $580,706.
The Selectmen went through the first part of the budget, which contained items associated with the Town Hall operations such as the town administrator, the Board of Selectmen, the town accountant, the town clerk and the town assessor.
Many of these items were level funded or slightly increased and drew few concerns from the Selectmen.
"I'd say we are at a bare-bones budget and I think we have done a really good job keeping ourselves in a situation where our solvency looks pretty good an I was happy to see that," Selectman Joseph Nowak said.
The Selectmen will review the entire budget through a series of meetings before approving it; then it will be reviewed again by the Finance Committee.
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Adams Sees No Races So Far
By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — With less than a week left before nomination papers are due, there are currently no contested seats.
Only selectman incumbent John Duval has returned papers. Selectman Howard Rosenberg has decided not to seek re-election.
Rosenberg, who was elected in 2021, said he has chosen not to run again to make room for younger candidates.
"I feel strongly, we need younger people running for public office, as the future of our town lies within the younger generation. The world is so fundamentally different today and rapidly changing to become even more so. I believe we need people who are less interested in trying to bring back the past, then in paving the way for a promising future. The younger generation can know that they can stay here and have a voice without having to leave for opportunities elsewhere," he said.
The only person to return papers so far is former member the board Donald Sommer. Sommer served as a selectman from 2007 to 2010 and before that was a member of the School Committee and the Redevelopment Authority. He ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2019 and again in 2021 but dropped out of before the election.
Incumbent Moderator Myra Wilk and Town Clerk Haley Meczywor have returned papers for their respective positions.
Assessor Paula Wheeler has returned papers and incumbents James Loughman and Eugene Michalenko have returned papers for library trustees.
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