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Date: 5/17/2022
WESTHAMPTON – During the Annual Town Meeting on May 14 at Town Hall, the residents of Westhampton gathered and voted to approve 36 articles, the majority of which featured budgetary items and capital expenses for the upcoming fiscal year.
Aside from a few minor changes to specific monetary items, the town approved an operating budget of close to $6.5 million for fiscal year 2023 (FY23), to go along with an extra $1,000,000 in capital/other expenses. The town also conducted a Special town Meeting immediately before the Annual Town Meeting, where residents approved three articles. One of these articles involved the town appropriating $160,000 to pay the remaining debt on a 2021 Highway Department Truck, as well as design services for town’s Public Safety Complex project.
The approved total budget included a little over $2 million for Westhampton Elementary, a little over $1.5 million for Hampshire Regional Middle/High School, and $208,833 for fire, police and Emergency Medical Services. The town also approved $119,806 for the library, a slight increase from their FY22 budget, mainly to cover for needed repairs and maintenance.
The town’s FY22 budget included $925,814 of free cash to go along with a Stabilization Fund of $433,560. The reason for the free cash amount being that high was because many boards and committees returned unused money from the past fiscal year back to the town. After using some free cash to either cover certain capital expenses or purchases, the town is left with $109,989 in free cash for FY23.
In total, the town used $815,825 in free cash for multiple essential purchases for the Westhampton Highway Department, including $220,000 for a utility tractor with an articulating brush mower deck, $76,000 for a medium duty four-wheel drive one-ton truck, and $65,000 for a light or medium-duty four-wheel drive truck, among other things.
The town also approved $160,000 to be moved from free cash to the General Stabilization Fund to maintain a stabilization fund balance equal to 5 to 7 percent of the general budget. Because of this the Stabilization Fund went from $433,560 to $593,560. The town also approved over $96,000 to be transferred from free cash to other available funds to balance the budget and reduce the tax rate.
Originally, Richard Tracy – a resident and member of the town’s Cemetery Commission – proposed that the town consider moving $25,000 from free cash to the general Stabilization Fund rather than $160,000, arguing that this is an opportune time for the town to reduce the increase of the tax rate.
“In my mind, we’re coming to the close of an era here,” Tracy said, during the meeting. “We have a new elementary school; we have a new highway department building; we have a new library; we have a completely renovated high school, and now we’re going to finally a proper facility for our fire and police departments.”
According to Tracy, the town has a “moral obligation” to recognize the “wonderful” people in town who have supported all of these important capital projects over the past few decades. His thought process was the town would put $25,000 in the General Stabilization and place the remaining $135,000 in the $96,000 of free cash that was used to reduce the tax rate. “Rather than actually reduce the increase of the tax rate, we can actually reduce the tax rate,” said Tracy. “I think it’s a rare opportunity to have…I would love to show other towns that with good leadership, you can [reduce the rate].”
Phil Dowling, the chair of the town’s Selectboard, said reducing the tax rate in general would be “great,” but added that it would cost more money to do that. According to Dowling, the $160,000 will be used to offset future expenses for capital improvements. “We’re doing it in a way that basically stabilizes that number for 10 years out,” said Dowling. “If we don’t do that, then we’re going to end up borrowing money for those items, and paying interest rates, which are going up dramatically.”