Mansfield Selectmen Consider Budget Override

Some visitors to selectmen Wednesday suggested a public forum featuring both selectmen and the school committee, pushing for more details and more transparency in the budget process as both school and municipal sides try to tackle a massive deficit of more than $3 million, in time to present a balanced budget to the April 24 Town Meeting.

One, Nancy Madonna, suggested the board support a short term Proposition 2 ½ override or a transfer of part of the town’s certified free cash to the schools to reduce class sizes she said were overwhelming for teachers and students alike, in the hopes that new revenue sources could be found over the next several years. But Town Manager Bill Ross said $2.2 million of the total free cash comes from departmental savings on the municipal side realized during the year, including hard won reductions in the cost of health insurance. “It’s one-time money, like winning the lottery,” Ross said.

He pointed out the schools had used one-time federal funds to hire staff last year against the advice of the finance committee, adding to the base cost of the district in a time when state and other revenues are dropping. “They were warned about hiring – we would feed that continuing problem,” he said. “The question is what do we do a year from now?”

Chairman Jess Aptowitz said the board is working hard to take into account the needs of the whole community. “We have 24,000 people in town,” he said. “We have seniors with no kids in the schools, and they are busting at the seams at the Council on Aging. They are the ones who built this town – we have to take care of them too.”

Aptowitz said it is easy to “cherry pick” the issues, but said hard decisions have to be made on both sides.

The schools were conducting their own budget forum the same night, and Aptowitz said he had asked that it be held on a night when selectmen were not meeting, but said the date had already been decided on last week.

Kevin Moran noted he had graduated from Mansfield schools himself, and had a son still in the system. “I’m thinking what kind of a Mansfield are we leaving for him?” Moran said. “I’m not willing to go through a series of one year fixes – it just compounds the problems over time.”

Olivier Kozlowski pointed out there will be a cost to the town for layoffs of school employees “who never should have been hired in the first place.”

The board also said infrastructure in town has to be kept in good repair to retain the critical business and industrial tax base that makes up a large part of the community’s tax revenue stream. Many of the road, building, and bridge repairs and equipment needs have waited years, and the board and Ross together vowed this year to make sure at least the most important issues were addressed.

Several board members said they were glad to actually be asked some hard questions by the public, and added they hoped members of the community would ask the same of the school committee. They added some suggestions for ways to increase the number of tenants in the industrial park will be presented at the Saturday airing of the town’s “Strategic Plan” in the high school cafeteria. That session will run from 9 a.m. until noon, and the public is encouraged to attend.