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Date: 2/26/2015
WILBRAHAM – Interim Town Administrator Thomas Sullivan outlined his budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 (FY16), which he said would leave the town under the Proposition 2 1/2 levy limit by $412,000, at the Feb. 10 Board of Selectmen meeting.
Sullivan explained the town is estimated to have $44 million in available revenue from local receipts and state funding and $43.6 million in total appropriations from Town Meeting and other charges. The budget as proposed would require the use of $1.2 million of the town’s $2.3 million certified Free Cash surplus.
Sullivan also noted that the budget as proposed utilizes last year’s numbers from the state as new cherry sheets for the upcoming fiscal year have not yet been released.
Budget increases include a rise in town counsel and paralegal fees and several leases, including the Senior Center, Wilbraham Public Access Television, and the solar array, coming due at the same time.
It also accounts for the addition of a new part-time Human Resources clerk position.
“We currently have Candace [Ouillette Gaumond], who is the selectmen’s secretary, doing Human Resource work and we also have some Human Resource work that the accounting department is doing right now that could be better utilized by transferring it to a position in the selectmen’s office,” Sullivan explained.
The town is also looking at converting to a full-time Information Technology (IT) help desk for an additional $32,000 to combat backlogs the department is currently experiencing that is leading to issues in maintaining high levels of service for other branches of town government.
Among the concerns, Sullivan said, was the fact that support for current operating systems and tools on many town computers will end soon.
“One of the problems is you have two people networking and using our support desk and as a result of all the calls that go into them and the backlog that they have, we have yet to upgrade our operating system from Windows XP, and also from Microsoft Office, and that support ends this April,” he said. “That means we have to get this converted and it shows we’re unable to do the things we should be doing on a timely basis. It also goes to our website and updating things more frequently.”
With full-time help desk support, IT Director Nathan DeLong will be able to conduct essential long-range planning instead of troubleshooting issues for departments.
An additional $53,000 was factored into the budget to fund the operating system conversion.
The town is also realizing an uncontrollable increase as a result of a 30 percent hike in electric rates.
“Hopefully it’s a one-year thing and will go down after that, but [any town department] who has street lighting or electricity in their budget we’ve increased by 30 percent to cover that electric bill right now,” Sullivan said. “Hopefully if something happens with the solar [array] by that time, we may get something off of our rates, but right now, to be conservative, I’ve included that 30 percent increase in everyone’s budget.”
Some insurance costs have also risen by “four or five percent,” he noted, adding the Scantic Valley Regional Health Trust was scheduled to meet soon to discuss health insurance rates. In FY15, the town realized a zero percent increase, but he said he expected some kind of increase in the upcoming fiscal year.
Pension-related expenses are also expected to increase approximately 8 percent over last year.
A sum of $25,000 was allocated to Building Maintenance for “eight to 10” small projects that would not require borrowing, including minor work at the fire station and library and a number of services at the police station, Sullivan said.
“Of course, that also depends on whether or not we’re moving forward with a new police station, so we can try to delay that,” he said.
An additional $300,000 received through the rental of the Memorial School building to Cathedral High School will be used for capital improvement projects at schools in the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District.