Restoring police and fire overtime and hiring a housing/code enforcement officer are topping the budget restoration list in Amherst.
Stephanie J. O'KeeffeAMHERST - Restoring police and fire overtime and hiring a housing/code enforcement officer are topping the budget restoration list if the town doesn’t have to cut as much as previously planned.
Town Manager John P. Musante presented a level-funded general government budget of nearly $18.6 million in January, a budget that was based on a 12.5 percent cut in state aid or $1.7 million cut town-wide. The budget was also based on the town levying to its full levy limit of $40.2 million. Last year, the town approved a $1.68 million override but only about $1.2 was levied. This year officials planned to levy the remaining $427,000.
But a range of options are on the table, officials said, if the cut to state aid is not as deep. Based on the latest information, officials believe that the cut to the town would about $700,000 instead of $1.7 million.
But that raises all kinds of questions about whether to spend that by restoring some cuts, whether to add that to reserves, not raise taxes to the full limit or add the money to the capital budget, which has been severely cut over recent years. Options include a little bit of everything.
Musante has prepared two tiers of budget restorations to the town side of the budget that even if all were funded would add just 1.7 percent to the bottom line, he said.
Select Board chairwoman Stephanie J. O’Keeffe would like to see the overtime restored and the position added as a way of improving quality of life to neighborhoods effected by students.
She said the Building Inspection office is short-handed and an additional inspector would be able to address housing violations, such as trash or too many cars on the lawn. “This is another tool in the tool box. The town has been trying to get serious (about student) behavior for a number of years and so has the university.”
But at the same time, she said, the town does not yet know what local aid will be, or is she ready to assume taxes will be raised to its levy limit. She said she foresees a lot of what if contingencies.
These are the conversations the Budget Coordinating Group will be having over the next several meetings, she said. That group is comprised of town, school and library officials staff and board and committee members.
“It’s a very evolutionary process,” she said. The further along “things kind of clarify.” Library and school officials are also looking at restoration budgets that the budget group will discuss.
The next budget group meeting is Thursday at 9:45 in Town Hall.