Voters approve FY10 budget, despite calls for adjournment

Date: 5/4/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW - What does a town do with its rainy day funds when it's pouring?

Resident Arlene Miller thinks those funds should be used, and said so at the Annual Town Meeting which lasted approximately four and a half hours last Tuesday evening.

"I don't think we've seen the flood yet," Select Board Vice-Chair Robert Barkett stated.

Why all the watery euphemisms? The fiscal year 2010 (FY10) budget was under discussion and the town's $2.1 million operation stabilization fund was being considered to help balance the budget in light of cuts in state funding.

Article 5 of the 35-article warrant for the meeting asked voters to approve the budget put together over the course of six months by the Select Board, Town Manager, School Committee and Financial Committee. This article also received the most debate.

"There is a [potential] $478,000 deficit in the FY10 budget," Mark Barowsky, chair of the Finance Committee, told those in attendance. "It would be disingenuous to pass this [budget] for the reason that at the start of the next fiscal year, the school numbers are locked in. They can't make changes." He continued that if further cuts come from the state, the town side of the budget will have to bear the brunt of those losses.

Barowsky stated that the Finance Committee decided earlier that evening by a vote of 4-1 not to recommend the budget, and he suggested that the vote be postponed.

Christine Swanson, chair of the School Committee, also recommended a delay of the vote on the budget until June 2. She said she believed the numbers would be closer to reality than those "crafted six months ago."

Armand Wray of the School Committee made a motion to adjourn the budget vote until June 2, but voters were torn on the issue.

"The downside [to postponing the vote] is that we may not know more than we know now," Town Manager Robin Crosbie stated.

Kathleen Grady of the Select Board was against the adjournment. "This is a very well thought out budget," she said. "We know more money is coming from the state. And we have $2.1 million in our stabilization fund for this unstable environment."

"We pass the budget with the best knowledge we have," Crosbie added, "and we tidy it up in the fall [at the Special Town Meeting]."

Sixty-four voters were in favor of the adjournment, and 75 were against. Ultimately, the $52 million budget was approved.

Also approved were 20 capital improvement projects, ranging from exterior repairs to the police and fire buildings to the replacement of auditorium curtains at Williams Middle School and Longmeadow High School.

All the articles relating to Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds and projects were approved, with the exception of Article 28, which would have decreased the CPA surcharge assessment from one percent to .25 percent. Projects that will be funded include the restoration of the interior of the Community House, the preservation of the Stephen Williams Diaries and other historic town records, the preservation of the Fannie Stebbins Memorial Wildlife Refuge and a plan to create a Community Needs Assessment Plan.

Voters defeated a motion to borrow $1.5 million for the purpose of converting to an electronic remote-read water meter system. There are 5,600 water meters in town, the majority of which are more than 20 years old.

"I think this is very important for the town," Department of Public Works Director Mike Wrabel said. "Instead of 1.5 people spending one and a half weeks reading meters, instead of 80 hours, it would take eight hours. There are an awful lot of advantages [to the conversion]."

A hand count of voters found that the town was not ready to borrow this much money to pay for the conversion.