The budget had to be refigured after voters rejected two override questions last month.
SUNDERLAND – Town officials are cutting line items in the proposed fiscal 2012 budget, expecting increased revenues and dipping into the town’s free cash to fill a $281,655 gap left after voters defeated two overrides in the May 7 election.
Residents will decide on a $6.83 million balanced budget at a special town meeting on Monday, June 6, at 7 p.m. at Sunderland Elementary School.
The fiscal 2012 budget was approved by voters in April on the condition that the overrides passed. Both failed. They would have raised the money to present a balanced budget to the Department of Revenue by July 1, in accordance with state law, and to supplement the stabilization fund.
“We need to plug that hole,” said Town Administrator Margaret Nartowicz.
The new budget proposal contains line item cuts totaling $127,814 from the original, $60,717 in new revenues and a request to use $93,124 of free cash.
In free cash, $204,259 is currently available. The proposal would drop that to $103,135 if passed. In fiscal 2011, $100,452 in free cash and $44,323 from the stabilization fund was used to balance the budget.
The town had expected reductions in state aid, but has now “bumped up its projections closer to what the Senate Ways and Means (Committee) budget is now,” said Nartowicz.
Line item reductions from the original fiscal 2012 budget include an $8,122 projected energy savings for town buildings, $59,407 from Sunderland Elementary School and $46,399 less to pay off debt and interest, according to documents released Tuesday.
The elementary school budget would be $2.05 million, a $23,632 increase from fiscal 2011’s final figure. One of the overrides had $47,000 earmarked for the school.
Of the $46,399 cut from loan and interest payments, $44,400 comes in the form of debt deferral until the beginning of fiscal 2013. The remainder is the elimination of funding for interest on short-term debt, meaning the town treasurer would not be allowed to borrow money without going through a source such as the reserve fund, said Nartowicz.
The budget also contains a 2 percent pay raise for many non-union town employees who took salary and hours cuts in 2009 due to failed overrides.
“There is a call to give these employees a cost-of-living increase,” said Nartowicz, who said it still would leave those employees with 3 percent less pay than before it was cut.
Selectboard chairman Scott A. Bergeron and Sunderland Elementary School principal Timothy Merritt did not return requests for comment.