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Date: 2/28/2023
HADLEY — Hadley Treasurer Linda Saunderson and Town Administrator Carolyn Brennan gave a presentation on the town’s fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget at the Select Board and Finance Committee’s joint Feb. 22 meeting. They discussed both the General Fund Budget and the Enterprise Budget. The budget has not yet been signed into effect; the presentation was regarding the town administrator’s recommendation for the budget.
The General Fund Budget is comprised of several categories: General Government, Public Safety, Education, Public Works, Human Services, Culture & Recreation, Debt Payment and Benefits and Other. During the presentation, Saunderson split the General Fund into a section on its revenues and a section on the budget.
The actual year to date revenue for all the categories combined was $8,716,050 as of Dec. 31, 2022, out of a projected total of $18,763,660. The fiscal year was roughly halfway through at the Dec. 31 marking date. FY24’s projected combined general fund revenue is $19,597,837. This marks an increase from FY20’s actual revenue of $17,077,782. Saunderson said these figures indicate that the town is on track with its FY23 predictions and projections.
“I’ve already been to the Finance Committee and the Select Board for the first part of the budget book, which is ‘where do we stand now? In the middle of FY23, how do our projections measure up with what we were saying about FY23 a year ago?’ Other than a few little things here and there, we’re pretty much on target with what we expected it to be. In some ways we’re slightly ahead, particularly in local receipts, just a bit. It means we’re comfortable and we’re going with the FY24 projections,” Saunderson said.
The government bodies which make up the categories of the general fund have requested a combined $21,402,254 for the FY24 budget. The town administrator’s recommendation is a combined budget of $20,476,209. This would be an increase of $835,078 from FY23. Saunderson felt positively about the increase.
“This is probably one of the better-balanced increases over the departments we’ve seen in a while. We always have a large increase in the benefits side; it’s just the way it is with retirement and health insurance benefits. Between the other departments, given their size, it’s fairly well-distributed,” Saunderson said.
The town’s current free cash balance was $1,468,102 as of Oct. 10, 2022. This has not changed since, so this is the balance with which the town will enter FY24.
The enterprise budget encapsulates the town’s water system, sewer system and Hadley Media. Combined, these departments are projected to bring in $2,372,956 in revenue during FY24. The breakdown of this figure is $1,008,224 in projected revenue for the sewer, $1,293,520 for water and $71,212 for Hadley Media.
The enterprise categories’ budgets will all increase in FY24 comparative to their FY23 allotments. Sewer will receive $1,131,172, water will receive $1,544,216, and Hadley Media would receive $101,815. This adds up to a total enterprise budget of $2,777,203, and a total increase of $355,665 from FY23.
According to Saunderson, these increases are an inevitability.
“Just like all the other budgets in town, these budgets are increasing each year. And how can they not? They’ve got employees, they’ve got expenses, supplies, they’ve got everything as anyone else, those budgets are going to go up each year,” Saunderson said.