NORTHFIELD — Hoping to prevent a spike in the tax rate, the Northfield Finance Committee is recommending the town vote to level fund this year’s $4.3 million assessment to the Pioneer Valley Regional School District.
Finance Committee Chairwoman Lois Stearns said if the school budget is passed as the district requested, with a 3.8 percent increase in Northfield’s assessment, the tax rate would be $17.31 per thousand dollar valuation, up from $16.45 this year.
“The Finance Committee has a responsibility to make recommendations to our voters,” Stearns told the School Committee during a March 30 meeting. “The school isn’t the only thing we talk about, we have to consider all of our departments. And we’re getting to the point where we’re very concerned by the increases in our assessments in the face of declining enrollment … Yes, we’re all for education, no question about it, but within what we can afford.”
By contrast, the Finance Committee is recommending an $8 million budget, which would raise the tax rate 50 cents to only $16.95 per thousand dollar valuation.
The overall budget is expected to rise less than 1 percent, primarily due to increases in town officials’ salaries and increased costs for health insurance.
“We’re giving 2 percent costs of living adjustments to all the employees and positions that get stipends,” Stearns said. “With our recommended increases, we’ll keep it under $17 and that’s our goal.”
All of Northfield’s committees and boards were asked to submit as level a budget as possible, Stearns said, with many of the line items being level funded before factoring in the salary increases.
The Finance Committee did, however, add in one new line item this year to account for the maintenance of historic markers, and is proposing allotting $1,000 to the fund for next year.
“There had been a fund left (in 1981) by the family of (Northfield resident Willis Parker) to maintain historic markers,” Stearns explained. However, the money — $2,000 at the account’s peak — has since been depleted.
Stearns said the amount of money allotted for the reserve fund would also increase from $42,000 to $45,000, providing a cushion in case extra money is needed during the year.
“It’s just good anticipating what might go up,” she said.
Residents will be asked to vote on numerous articles on the annual town meeting warrant that involve raising and appropriating money or allocating money from free cash.
One such article is Article 28, which proposes raising and appropriating $500,000 for the stabilization account.
Stearns explained the Selectboard requested the article seeing how an average of $450,000 a year has been gleaned in tax revenue from the former Northfield Mount Hermon School campus in Northfield while it has been owned by the National Christian Foundation, and formerly Hobby Lobby. However, should the nonprofit Thomas Aquinas College take over ownership, as it is supposed to on May 2, it would be tax exempt.
Not having the same tax revenue would be detrimental to the town, Stearns explained, affecting the ability to maintain buildings, police cruisers and Highway Department vehicles, to name a few. So instead, the plan is to put the money aside in advance, should the article pass.
Other articles involve allocating: $16,062 to eliminate the Highway Department’s snow and ice fund deficit; $4,500 to purchase a gas detector for the Fire Department; $100,000 to update Town Hall’s wiring and another $100,000 to repair the parking lot drainage system; $100,000 to clean up a property at 314 Caldwell Road; $11,500 to codify an updated version of the zoning bylaw; $170,000 to replace a Highway Department truck; and $35,000 for a Transfer Station compactor.
Northfield Elementary School and Pioneer have several construction projects that will be presented to voters on the warrant in articles 23 and 24.
At Northfield Elementary, these projects consist of re-doing the wiring and replacing carpeting and flooring, windows, parking lot pavement and the North Building’s roof, costing a total of $112,000. Likewise, Northfield’s share in paying for carpeting three classrooms and the library at Pioneer, and replacing a section of gutters would account for $19,198.