DALTON, Mass. — The Finance Committee approved a number of budgets that are under $20,000 in bulk after reviewing them during its meeting Wednesday night. 

 

The approval of these 23 lines from the $10 million proposed town budget added up to $145,257, which included the budgets for a number of town committees and commissions, the moderator, animal control, landfill monitoring, sealer of weights and measures, tax title foreclosure, and other budgets. More information on these budgets here. 

 

Finance Committee Clerk Karen Schmidt noted that the Green Committee budget is not included in this group so will have to be approved later in the budgeting process. 

 

In the past, the committee would approve these budgets individually which would take multiple nights to do. To save time and since these budgets are level funded or have minimum changes to them the committee approved them in bulk. 

 

The committee referred to a document compiled by committee Clerk Karen Schmidt that takes a historic look at town budget spending in the last five years. 

 

"What it does is, it looks at the expenses and it looks at the salaries and it gives us a good idea of what's being used and what's not being used over a little bit longer period of time than just simply what was used now [and] used from the previous year," Chair William Drosehn said. 

 

"So it's actually, it's a really great document and she's done a pretty awesome job putting it together."

 

The committee expressed little to no concerns with the budgets presented. The Select Board amended a number of the lines during its meeting last week to make decreases amounting to approximately $12,000. 

 

The committee approved the Select Board budget of $27,571, which is a decrease from last year. 

 

The Select Board budget was originally proposed for $30,800, a 3.30 percent decrease over this year, however, the board members voted to decrease it more by eliminating the projected 2 percent raise in their stipends and lowering its "Other Purchase" line item. 

 

The committee also approved the reserve fund transfer budget of $60,000, which was decreased from $65,000 during the board meeting. 

 

Drosehn questioned this decision, saying he believed the town used more funds than what was presented but agreed to approve the decreased amount and if more is needed they will go back to a special town meeting. 

 

Schmidt said she would prefer to make small cuts to a number of budgets adding up to approximately $12,750 based on what she saw when developing the historical budget document. She did not go into detail about which budgets she would recommend making cuts to. 

 

She did question the Historical Commission budget that is level funded at $4,500, after past spending showed that some of the budget was not spent so recommended lowering it by about $500. 

 

The committee chose not to send it back because there are other areas where larger cuts can be made. 

 

She also questioned the increase in the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission budget because in the past not all of it was used, especially in the last three to four years, Schmidt said. 

 

Drosehn said what was budgeted seemed appropriate especially with the projects the commission is helping the town with, including the Dalton Division Road project. 

 

He cautioned the committee not to make too many cuts that may increase the need to hold special town meetings to make reserve fund transfers when lines are overspent.