Cuts face Hollis Budget Committee

Friday, March 5, 2010

Five people are running for two three-year seats on the Hollis Budget Committee. They were asked to answer one question: “In light of the financial problems for local governments, give an example of a service that could be cut to save money and an example of a service that should not be cut under any circumstances.”

Tom Gehan:

The item I would retain unconditionally is the Town Hall renovation. The condition of the building has been a concern for at least eight years.

Town Hall has been closed twice recently during high winds due to safety worries. I find the analyses, photos and engineer’s testimony compelling and believe the renovation is no longer a discretionary item, but rather a required project, like the mold remediation at the Upper Elementary school.

I am against ratification of the collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 3657. Given the economy and the fact that cost of living and private sector compensation have lagged and are forecast to continue to lag their historical trends, the wage and benefit increases proposed by the fact finder for fiscal 2009-11 are too high: 6.11 percent, 6.20 percent and 9.29 percent respectively.

I believe this is true even when incorporating the discontinuation of the retiree health insurance benefit added in the last agreement.

The town’s proposal would deliver an aggregate increase of more than $260,000 to the 29 unionized communications, police and fire employees.

Robert Labednick:

The financial problems facing local governments today are complex and are not simply defined by eliminating some services while keeping others. The mainstay to the problem is controlling costs of services.

The economy has had an impact on the town’s expenditures, which has resulted in a flat budget the last couple of years. Despite this relatively flat budget, however, Hollis residents have continued to receive excellent services and have not been adversely impacted.

We need to find more efficient ways to control the cost of town services and expenditures. For example, the purchasing of new equipment for town needs should be better scrutinized by our residents. We need to get the most out of every dollar we spend and not overspend because of what we prefer to have.

In other words, does everything have to be a Cadillac, or can we operate and do an equally efficient job with a Ford or Chevy?

Paul Cain:

I would look long and hard at all areas of the budget. No one item is more important than others, but care must be given when reviewing town budgets to ensure the safety and protection of Hollis residents.

Residents will be asked to make decisions in the next few years to repair and maintain the town’s infrastructure. Necessary repair/maintenance to town buildings has been put off, with costs estimated to repair these buildings in the six-plus-figure range.

As we saw recently, with the failure of the South Merrimack Road culvert, if repairs and maintenance are put off too long, the structure collapses. Luckily, repairs were able to be made to the culvert with federal assistance, which decreased the cost to the town. If a town building were to suffer a structural failure today, the cost to repair/rebuild would be entirely placed on the townspeople. These are some of the issues I will work to find solutions to without burdening Hollis residents. My first and foremost goal, if elected to the Budget Committee, is to try to find a balance between the needs of the town departments and costs to the town’s taxpayers. I hope to bring a new perspective to the Budget Committee, and that I can make a difference to the benefit of Hollis property owners.

Christopher Hyde:

I have been trying to get my fellow Budcom members to place greater emphasis on controlling the tax rate rather than just focusing on the operating budget, and I sense more are realizing the necessity of that approach. I have voted to eliminate the requested Town Hall office redesign funds and focused just on the needed safety repairs. While many projects might be worthy of funding in good times, in these times, I am opposed to spending money on sidewalks, Flint Pond weed-raking at $136,000 of taxpayer money or the highly unrealistic police and firefighters union contract proposal.

Our employees are well compensated, and this contract proposal is insulting in its apparent avarice in a time when many in town have been laid off, salaries cut or frozen, and retirement funds decimated. However, with declining student population, we must find ways to cut more costs while providing excellent results, a task made harder by the huge mold remediation and reconstruction project to get our students back in classrooms. This is a costly problem we are actively working on to minimize the tax impact.

Basil Mason did not reply.