The town is not expecting to use town reserves or ask for a Proposition 2 ½ property tax override.
Amherst Town HallAMHERST – The town’s Finance Director is expecting fiscal 2013 to be a "no drama" budget.
The town is not expecting to use town reserves or ask for a Proposition 2 ½ property tax override.
The town approved an override in 2009 for a $1.68 million hike, an increase levied over two years.
Fiscal realities, though, mean that budgets must be held to a 2.8 percent increase, enough to continue to provide the same services. But there will be no service expansions, said Sanford Pooler, who met with the Select Board, finance and school committees, school and library officials as well as the Jones Library Board of Trustees recently to outline the early projections.
These annual meetings are intended to help department heads plan for the upcoming fiscal year. The town manager must present his budget to the town no later than Jan. 16. Because that date falls on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the budget will be presented Jan. 13.
Providing the same level of service requires a 2.8 increase in the overall budget – a $1.7 million increase in the town’s current $64.2 million budget.
Any more than that would leave the town with a deficit.
Department budgets must be kept to a 2.8 increase as well. Those budgets have to take into account cost hikes.
“Health care continues to be a real pressure on us,” Pooler said, however the town has been able to contain costs in recent years.
He also said the town has seen a reduction in staff, but staff “will continue the tradition of a high quality (of service.)”
The town’s capital budget, however, will be held to a 1.8 percent hike based on 6.5 percent of the tax levy. At one point, officials had hoped to use 10 percent of that levy. “It’s the new fiscal reality,” he said.
Pooler is expecting to see a 1.9 percent increase in all state aid. The town could also see a 2.5 percent hike in vehicle excise taxes, as car sales have been by about 5 percent statewide, he said.
The Lord Jeffrey Inn is expected to reopen later this fall and could boost the local option hotel/motel and meals excise tax receipts by about 8.5 percent or $50,000 according to preliminary projections.
But Pooler also said officials will be watching to see what happens in Washington with the federal budget. If the federal budget is cut, the state might have to compensate for those cuts, which could cut state aid to local communities.
The town’s Budget Coordinating Group will hold its first meeting Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Town Hall to in part set financial goals.