Lincoln budget plan calls for 1.1 percent increase
LINCOLN – As he works toward completion of the 13th town budget of his tenure in office, Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond is feeling confident that effort will also result in a potentially low impact on local taxes.
Almond is recommending town voters pass a 2019-20 budget of $67,416,713, an increase of $744,398 or 1.1 percent over current spending.
Almond’s proposal includes a municipal operating budget of $22,590,533 which represents an increase of $760,123, or 3.5 percent driven largely by increased healthcare costs and local pension obligations, and a proposed local appropriation for schools of $41,786,276 representing no increase from last year’s town contribution.
The school department is projected to receive a state aid contribution of $14,198,321 which represents an increase of $2,268,987 over last year. The school department is also projected to collect $900,000 in federal Medicaid reimbursements and is proposed to receive $600,000 in capital items under this year’s recommendations for $1,229,400 in separate Financial Town Meeting capital project resolutions.
Almond submitted his budget recommendation to the town budget board on
Feb. 13 and began reviewing the proposal with the board’s members on Thursday.
The board will also be considering the school department’s original request for an operating budget of $57,251,895, or an increase of 4.8 percent over last year’s budget. The school department’s request includes an increase of 18 full-time-equivalent positions and funding to continue a goal of reducing
out-of-district placements through new district programs.
In support of his budget recommendation, Almond pointed to limited growth of less than 1 percent in the town’s overall tax levy as reason to remain cautious on new spending.
“We are grown out and there is very little left,” Almond said of the town’s available land for industrial development. Lincoln has seen some additional commercial development in the past year, including new restaurants at
the Lincoln Mall and the new hotel at Twin River, but those do not represent a major increase in tax revenue, according to Almond.
“I caution that we avoid short term solutions and maintain our strategic longterm outlooks, “Almond said of his budget strategy.
Almond’s recommendation on school spending was driven by the fact that schools will receive a $2.3 million in state aid in the coming year which will still increase school spending by 4.1 percent over last year, he explained. Even then, town residents will still shoulder 74 percent of the burden of next year’s school spending under the state’s school aid formula, he pointed out.
“They wanted me to increase the local share by $360,000 but I did not recommend that,” Almond said of the school department while noting his budget recommendation and the school depart-
ment’s request are not that “far apart” overall.
On the municipal side, Almond said his recommendation represents a $760,123 increase in spending, or 3.5 percent, but that comes from higher employee costs such as a $207,069 increase in the town’s self-insured health care plan and contributions of $94,621 for local pension costs and $44,569 increase funding for state pension liabilities.
“Just those three things make up more than half of the municipal increase,” Almond said.
The town would not add any new municipal positions next year under his recommendation and Almond said he also looks closely at all municipal programs when preparing his budget.
“We look at the whole budget, from A to Z, every year and we look at the impact of our decisions,” he said.
As for his budget work
overall, Almond said he believes he has worked with the budget board to “hold taxes to a minimum for over a decade.”
Taxpayers during his administration have only seen conservative increases in taxes such as the one percent increase year last year, or less, he noted.
“We don’t want to spend any money that is not absolutely necessary to provide the service that taxpayers want,” he said.
Of course local taxpayers do share in local revenue benefits derived from the Twin River Casino off Twin River Road but Almond noted even that funding, $7.6 million again this year, is managed frugally.
Under a plan put in place 13 years ago, only $5.2 million of the town’s annual share of Twin River gaming revenue goes to operating budget costs, he noted. The remaining $2.4 million is put toward capital expenses or added to the town reserve accounts that help secure its top double-A bond ratings, he noted.
The added capital funding resources have allowed the town to maintains its roads, sewer systems, parks and buildings while also adding new town assets such as the senior center, and the additions at the public library and police station without raising taxes.
“Many of the cities and towns defer these things when they don’t have money but it just becomes a huge bill in the end,” Almond said.
The town has also been able to build a new middle school and start the reconstruction of the high school under new $60 million building project by planning in the long term, he noted.
“So we are in good shape,” Almond said while pointing to the town’s efforts to properly guide its spending.
“I think everyone has done a good job managing the budget,” he said. “Consistency is a priority and that has been a big thing while I’ve been here,” he said.