Update: Find the current draft budget for the March 7 public hearing at this link.
Over the last few months, the Town Manager and staff, the Select Board, and CIP and Finance Committees have been working on the 2024-25 municipal budget.
The resulting working document–not yet final–includes some $7.2 million in operations, capital items and paving expenditures in the town’s portion of an estimated $14 million town-county-schools budget, before revenues, up from $13.2 million for the current year.
Now it’s the public’s opportunity to take a look and weigh in.
The community is invited to ask questions and offer comments at a public hearing with the Finance Committee on Thursday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. at the Meetinghouse.
Immediately after the public hearing, the Finance Committee will finalize its budget recommendations to send to the Select Board. Both the hearing and meeting will be broadcast on local cable and live-streamed at this link.
Copies of updated budget documents, reflecting the Manager/Department heads’ proposed budget and Select Board and Finance Committee working recommendations, will be available on the town website–newgloucester.com–and in print on Wednesday, March 6.
What’s in the proposed budget? Nothing is final yet and everything, especially estimates of the FY25 tax rate, awaits updated budget sheets and the MSAD 15 budget later this spring.
But here are a few notes from budget discussions so far. Errors are certainly my own.
— The Manager/Department heads’ proposed budget included requests for three new staff positions, now changed or reduced:
- an Executive Assistant position in Town Hall – now a Clerk position
- a full-time library staff position 36 hrs per week w/ benefits – now 28 hrs per week, no benefits
- a per diem firefighter – now distributed wage adjustments for per diem firefighters
— $700,000 in paving/chip seal projects
— Use of $500,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance (Town’s surplus) to reduce taxation.
— More than $1 million in capital purchases and deposits into departments’ capital reserve accounts has been under discussion. Items still proposed to go forward include, among others:*
- $340,000 for a dump truck and plow for Public Works
- $293,777 for a loader for Public Works
- $75,000 toward the Fairgrounds bathrooms/storage project
— Capital items not currently making the cut to be funded:
- $191,963 for a backhoe for Public Works
- $90,000 for a pick-up/plow for Public Works
- $25,000 for a Utility Terrain Vehicle for Fire Rescue
The Select Board may accept or reject the Finance Committee’s advisory recommendations when making its own final budget decisions. If the two groups’ recommendations differ, both figures will be shared with voters on the warrant at Town Meeting.
Why wait until Town Meeting to ask questions or chime in? Add your voice to the budget discussion on Thursday, March 7, at 6:30 at the Meetinghouse, 389 Intervale Road, in the Town Hall Complex.
— Joanne Cole
*Costs of capital items from CIP review
