Taxpayers hit with double trouble

Friday, February 26, 2010

HOLLIS – The mold problem at Hollis Upper Elementary School that delayed the opening of school last fall and forced administrators to move students to other parts of the building had a similar effect on the school budget: Requests for spending had to be shifted to accommodate a suddenly changed budget landscape.

The need to find about a half-million dollars to fix a school, and another $400,000 to repair a wobbly Town Hall tower might be described as every small town’s financial nightmare.

“Every year is the worst year ever, when you’re on the Budget Committee,” said Frank Whittemore, a town resident since 1940 who is in his third year on the Budget Committee and has served on the committee in previous years.

But this year, the words “worst year ever” take on a new meaning, thanks to spending requests to fix the Hollis Upper Elementary School and a similarly urgent appeal on the town side to make repairs to Town Hall, necessary to keep employees and visitors safe.

“The fact that there are two problems at the same time that are very costly is very unusual,” said Whittemore, an owner and operator of Brookdale Fruit Farm. “These two projects are really necessary to do, and it puts an extra burden on the decision-making process.”

In addition, the town rejected a fact-finder’s recommendation on a contract for the local union that represents police, fire and communications department employees because of the increased costs that would be passed on to taxpayers, Whittemore observed.

The teachers in the School District agreed to a contract that the Budget Committee supported Thursday night, Feb. 18 at a meeting reconvened to finish business left hanging at the end of the public hearing on the proposed school budget.

During the reconvened meeting of the School Board and Budget Committee, Bill Beauregard, vice chairman of the School Board, presented a budget pared from the week before at the public hearing.

The School Board’s 2011 proposed budget includes $269,620 in increases over last year, for contracts, teacher retirement, heating oil, an estimated 17.6 percent increase in health care premiums and the addition of a maintenance position.

The board cut $377,463 from the 2011 budget by eliminating three classroom teachers and making cuts in its contingency, tuition expenses and other areas. The board slashed an additional $198,125 between Feb. 11 and the meeting of Feb. 18.

“The budget reduces operating spending by $261,000, or 2.3 percent, largely through reducing five positions that reflect declining enrollments,” Beauregard wrote in an e-mail exchange.

He said the proposed budget also seeks to use an energy grant to save more than $23,000 in lighting costs and frees up $42,000 in the district’s maintenance expendable trust to be applied to the repairs at the upper elementary school.

If voters approve the proposed school budget, however, they’ll see a one-time increase in their tax bills, in spite of the decrease in the operating budget.

The increase in the school portion of the tax bill would reflect the one-time expense to fix the upper elementary school rather than bond the project at a cost of more than $200,000.

The school portion of the tax rate, with the school repairs figured in, would be $6.81 per thousand of valuation, meaning the owner of a home assessed at $350,000 would pay a total hollis school district tax of $2,384.

The $6.81 represents a one-year cost increase of 72 cents per $1,000 assessed property valuation, or $253 for a $350,000 home.

It hasn’t been an easy process, and on Feb. 18, relief was palpable after the Budget Committee voted to support the school budget.

“You’ve got to weigh it all,” said Budget Committee Member Bob Labednick, a 41-year town resident who is running for re-election to the board. “When we first started out, we told the town and schools, we wanted a flat budget. We also asked what would happen to services and operations if they cut 2 percent and 5 percent.”

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.