Dalton Budget 'Worse-Case Scenario' Could Mean Staffing Cuts
DALTON, Mass. — In the worst-case scenario, the town could be forced to reduce staff if projected increases in the school budget, health insurance, and other uncontrollable costs occur.
Town Manager Eric Anderson presented the "grim" budget to the Select Board on Monday, showcasing the anticipated major driver in the fiscal year 2027 budget.
"The first thing I want to say is the first cut of the budget always looks hopeless. I mean it always does. This is, in many ways, what we should probably think of as the worst case scenario," Anderson said.
"The goal here has got to be to make this budget better and more reasonable overall because this one talks about doing some fairly drastic things."
Currently, the town estimates an operating budget of $12,015,278, a $1,121,684 or 10.3 percent increase, but a lot of data is still unavailable, so this is expected to decrease.
The town's single-family tax bill is significantly higher than the rest of the Berkshires but lower than the state. The tax bill as a percentage of household income is also significantly higher than the rest of the Berkshires on average, Anderson said.
"About 14 percent of the average, the median household's income in Dalton is going to pay town taxes. So that's a pretty significant number. In Berkshire County as a whole, it's about 12 percent," he said.
"So, we're about 17 percent higher than Berkshire County on average. We're certainly not the highest, not by far, but there's a lot more that are less than us overall."
At the end of this budget year, the town will be under its levy limit by about $350,000, and if the town were to max its limit, which is not recommended, fiscal year 2027's budgeted tax could increase by approximately $810,000.
"It's probably much smarter to try to stay at least $100,000 to $150,000 under the levy limit so you have a little cushion if something goes better in the next year," Anderson said.
Although it is still early in the process and these projections may change, preliminary numbers indicate the Central Berkshire Regional School District forecast a nearly 10 percent budget increase.
"To keep under the levy limit if the school budget remains as it is, the funding for the town has to decrease by at least $200,000 to even make the levy limit and that's going to be brutal," Anderson said.
"The regional school district is going to have to address that number. If we got that number down to a 4 percent increase, we could live with that at the town and we could get through with no staff cuts and some trimming, and a little bit of hardship, but nothing crazy. The question is can they really do that and what they're going to come in as a final number."
Anderson said he spoke to Gregory Boino, the district's director of finance and operations, on Friday, and was told that the individual levies for the towns is between 8 and 14 percent.
"They're more than half of our budget. So, a 9.9 percent increase in half of our budget translates into at least a 4.5 percent increase in our overall town budget if we have the exact same spending next year as this year," Anderson said.
Officials from Central Berkshire Regional School District will be presenting the budgets rational and updated numbers during a future Finance Committee and Select Board meeting.
Additionally, overall state aid as a percentage of town budgets has dropped by 50 percent since the 2007 recession.
There are also planned sewer bill increases because of Pittsfield's sewer treatment plan upgrades. More information here.
The budget builds in cost-of-living and step increases for more employees by 3.75 percent, which also drives up Medicare costs by the same percentage. The town has a total of 41 employees across the town hall, police and dispatch, library, senior center, and public works department.
Contributing to the budget challenges the town does not have a lot of capital reserves considering the amount of deferred maintenance needed, including the roads, sewer, water, public safety facility, and making the town hall handicap accessible, Anderson said.
There is only so much the town can trim from without having to make staff cuts because the majority of the budget for most departments is salaries, he said.
If the worse case scenario comes to fruition, Anderson presented several options including
- a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which is unlikely given likely strong opinion from residents
- staff cuts, which has a substantial ripple effect such as reducing town services and lowering moral
- Decreasing the cost-of-living allowance, which is currently 2 percent. However, due to various contracts, this would be applied unevenly and not recommended.
- Exclude certain town debt above the levy limit to free up levy capacity.
- Adjusting the tax rate from a single rate to a split tax rate, which would assign a higher rate to businesses.
- Adjusting the tax rate would not affect the proposition 2 and a half or spending, rather determines how tax is appropriated.
If the board were to adopt a split rate, Anderson would suggest doing so gradually over a four-year period, increasing by a 1.5 multiplier.
He also presented a three-year projection based on anticipated budget strains and where it aligns with the levy limit including,
- how the core inflation is running between 2.5-and-3 percent,
- the need for capital spending due to deferred maintenance,
- government operations becoming more complex with increasing state reporting requirements,
- And state procurement process and prevailing wage laws make capital projects more expensive, further straining the town's budget.
Tags: Dalton_budget, fiscal 2027,
