Millville budget woes are history
Selectmen vote to use money from land auction to erase remaining budget deficit
MILLVILLE — The town’s long budget nightmare appears to be over.
At a meeting Monday, the selectmen reluctantly voted 3 to 1 to use a portion of the proceeds from last month’s town land auction to erase the town’s remaining budget deficit and end the year with a balanced budget.
The final tally on the cumulative budget deficit as of Monday was $201,601, but with nowhere else left to cut, the board agreed to fill the financial gap with some of the $836,000 the town is in line to receive after selling nine town-owned parcels at public auction Oct. 30.
“At this point, we have exhausted all feasible options for reducing the budget deficit via cutting expenses,” Town Accountant Justin Cole told selectmen Monday. “There are also no more options at this point for additional revenue.”
Cole said the town had three options – close the deficit with funds from the already-low stabilization account; cut the Police Department budget to the point where public
safety would be compromised; or use one-time revenues from the land auction.
The board chose the third option while acknowledging that it was doing exactly what got the town in trouble in the first place – using one-time revenues to balance the budget. Voting in favor of using the auction proceeds to close the deficit were Selectmen Joseph G. Rapoza, Thomas Houle, Jennifer Dean Wing and Andrew Alward. Casting the dissenting vote was Erica Blake.
Cole said even he was leery about using the auction proceeds.
“To be honest, I have my own reservations about using the proceeds from selling a town asset to balance the budget,” he said. “Not to sound like a hypocrite, but we’ve been talking at length for two years about what happens when you use onetime revenues to balance the budget and here we are doing it again. And we have to acknowledge the fact that by using $201,601 in one-time revenue to balance the budget now - when we get to the fiscal 2020 budget we will automatically be in the hole for $201,601.”
But the selectmen said they felt like they had little choice if the town is expected to set the tax rate by the first week of December.
“If you do not set a tax rate and bills do not go out by Dec. 31, by default they will be due by May 1, which basically means the town will be bankrupt because there is no way we can go two-plus quarters without tax collections,” Cole said.
After the vote to use the auction proceeds was taken, there was a marked silence in the meeting room.
“This concludes our nightmare,” a solemn Rapoza said after a few minutes.
“But we had to,” responded Dean Wing. “It’s our responsibility to keep the town moving.”
Faced with the stark reality that revenues haven’t kept pace with the cost of education, the town this year was plunged into a fiscal nightmare, resulting in not just the slashing of staff and services, but also, the threat of receivership.
After the defeat of a proposed $1 million Proposition 2½ operational override at a special election last June, the town found itself with the task of having to close what was initially a $300,000 structural deficit. To do that the town implemented significant cuts in service, including eliminating municipal trash service; closing the Senior Center and laying off all its employees; shutting off 64 percent of the town’s street lights; cutting all stipends; eliminating vacant positions; reducing town hall department hours; and laying off a full-time firefighter.
The override was being sought by the selectmen, Finance Committee and administration as part of a strategic financial plan to right-size the budget and reset the tax rate to address ongoing operational deficits due to continued use of one-time revenues to fund increases to the school budget.
The Finance Committee had proposed two town operating budgets at the annual town meeting back in May – an override-contingent budget of $6,3343,733 and a $6,183,222 budget with no override – depending on the outcome of the override vote.
The selectmen and Finance Committee had repeatedly warned that the town could no longer balance the budget by using one-time “rainy day” revenues, which is why they advocated for the override. The tax override, they say, would have right-sized the budget and provided increases in the tax rate phased in over eight years to balance future budgets.
But a majority of the voters who went to the polls on June 19 rejected the measure by a vote of 589 to 339.
“Hopefully, next year we can work with our School Committee and all of our town departments to bring the optimum information to the townspeople so that people understand and don’t feel like they’re getting sold a bag of goods,” said Houle. “I think that’s how some people felt and I’m not casting blame on anyone. What we need to do is to continue the honest work we’re doing with our Finance Committee and School Committee and keep the lines of communication open.”