ORANGE — Another year, another challenge in putting together the budget.
It’s early in budget discussions, but looking at the numbers, there could be a $600,000 to $800,000 gap between what departments are asking for in their budgets and what the town can afford.
The Orange Selectboard and Finance Committee met jointly Wednesday night to talk about budget priorities, and resolved to have another meeting in a few weeks to educate the public about how the budget process works.
Orange’s budget will not be voted on until its Annual Town Meeting in June.
“It continues to be more and more challenging,” said Selectboard Chairman Ryan Mailloux.
It’s too early to say what the budget will look like, especially since the Finance Committee won’t receive school budgets until April — last year education accounted for roughly 55 percent of the $20 million budget.
Mandated costs of special education — where the state shortchanges Orange by $3.5 million — as well as high transportation and rising health insurance costs are struggles for the schools financially, and, in turn, a struggle for the town.
State revenue numbers, which determine how much the town gets in aid, often don’t come in until the summer — another challenge.
However, the Finance Committee projects, having met with many of the town’s departments, including the police and fired departments, that there could be around a three-quarters-of-a-million dollar gap between what departments request, and what the town can afford.
According to Finance Committee member Kathy Reinig, the elementary schools are cutting into their Chapter 70 state-aid reserves this year to address issues with student misbehavior at Fisher Hill Elementary Schools, as well as hiring counselors and a part-time principal to replace Maureen Donelan, who has been mysteriously on leave since October despite having been cleared by the state of allegations of neglect and abuse.
Reinig called the school situation a “downward spiral.”
“The elementary schools are underfunded. They know that, the state knows that, everybody knows that. Nobody doesn’t know that,” Reinig said. “If they don’t do well, that actually ends up costing us more because students choice out.”
The budget process has changed this year. The Finance Committee has been requesting that the town’s departments submit their “ask” budgets, which represent what the departments think they “truly need” in order to run efficiently, according to Finance Committee Vice Chairman George D. Hunt. In previous years, budgets were more or less “flatlined,” and departments were given only enough to get by.
“In many cases, I thought they were being very conservative,” said Reinig of the departments’ “ask” budgets this year.
Reinig said there should be more guidance from the Selectboard regarding where to make cuts, especially if cuts could mean positions are lost.
Last year, departments saw 5 percent cuts to their expenses across the board, with the exceptions of the Police Department, where expenses were cut by 6.25 percent, the Fire Department expenses, where expenses were cut by 6 percent, the Highways, Cemeteries and Parks Department, where expenses were cut by 6 percent and the reserve fund, which was reduced to $30,000 from $94,000.
According to Mailloux, the Selectboard will be advocating for pay increases “across the board” for all nonunion personnel, who do not get contractual or union-backed pay increases. Mailloux said the effort would be fair and a “boost in morale” for town employees.
Finance Committee Chairman Keith LaRiviere said it is “too early to panic,” but the town must consider every possibility when it comes to making cuts, including a potential tax override.
“We have to be talking about an override as a possible partial solution,” LaRiviere said. “Otherwise we’re not being realistic.”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.