It’s time to get informed and get ready to vote. On Thursday, April 26, the Board of Finance (BOF) holds the second budget public hearing on the fiscal year 2018-’19 budget before setting the budget numbers for referendum. The town is expected to formally set a referendum date of Tuesday, May 15.

With both the Board of Education (BOE) and town budget in hand, the BOF voted to move the two budgets forward to a second public hearing on April 26 with no additional reductions or additions to the base budget.

Together the town and BOE budget is $83,067,202, an increase of $1,181,588 or 1.44 percent from last year’s spending. The BOE budget is $58,103,711, representing a $1,184,506 or 2.08 percent increase in spending. The town budget is $24,963,491, a decrease in spending of $2,948 or 0.01 percent compared to last year.

The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) is a five-year planning tool, though at each budget referendum, voters only approve the current fiscal year’s capital expenditures at the ballot box. For this 2018-’19 year, the CIP is $3,211,906, keeping funding completely flat from the prior year.

The proposed budget, if adopted, is anticipated to lead to an estimated 0.76 rise in the mill rate, from 27.30 to 28.06, a 2.78 percent rise; that preliminary figure is based on early assumptions on state funding and other variables.

The Board of Selectmen (BOS) has also recommended to the BOF that the estimated tax collection rate stay at 98.75 percent and that the BOF use $400,000 from the undesignated fund balance to offset the mill rate increase.

The Library

The town budget, as it stands now, carries a $300,000 cut to the library operating budget; that cut has been a source of some contention between parties, boards, and library officials. The cut was proposed as a reduction in operation for the duration of the time the library is in a temporary space during construction, but library officials said the cut will have an adverse affect on their ability to deliver services to residents.

The budget the BOF has sent to a second public hearing keeps the library cut at $300,000. The BOF voted unanimously to send the budget on to a second public hearing. Throughout the budget process, the library and its supporters have balked at the cut, placing ads and sending out mailers to residents stating that the cut will negatively affect library service, resulting in a reduction in hours, staff, and programs.

Library Director Beth Crowley appealed to the BOF on March 12, asking the board to restore all but $100,000 to the library’s budget and detailing the cuts to operating hours and staff she said will result from a $300,000 cut.

“These reductions are severe and unnecessary. They would limit access to information for those residents who cannot visit or call us during business or school hours. This is not the level of service our residents requested from us prior to the referendum nor is it the level of service they have been asking from us since,” Crowley said. “In my 20 years of library experience, 11 at a managerial level, I have never presented a budget that would waste taxpayer dollars and I have not done so now. I am confident we will be providing a high level of library service during the construction period and meeting the needs of our residents even beyond what they themselves may imagine we can do. And in providing this service, our staff will be fully engaged and productive allowing my management team and me to focus on building the permanent future library the Madison voters approved.”

A recent mailer received by some residents states “this level of cuts is not necessitated by the upcoming library expansion project,” though the mailer does not state who paid for the message.

The BOS and BOF have stated that the cut is for the time the library is in its temporary space during construction. When the Ad-Hoc Library Committee recently dealt with the idea of pushing back construction to next year, BOF Chair Jean Fitzgerald said the cut would be restored if the library had to push construction off, emphasizing that the cut is only tied to the construction.

Fitzgerald said when the library moves to its temporary location in North Madison, the library footprint is going to be reduced by 63 percent. Considering the library made the case for the new library on the need for more space, she said it made sense to reduce its budget by 25 percent for the time the library is in a significantly smaller location.

“We have to be able to defend to the public how we are spending our money and when an entity reduces its operational space by 63 percent, we cannot justify giving them their whole budget,” she said. “We didn’t reduce by saying if they are down by 63 percent in space then they are going to be down by 63 percent in their operating budget. We were very clear. This was more measured.”

Fitzgerald said the town didn’t attempt to reduce another department by an equal amount because no other department is reducing the physical footprint of its operation. She said the library went through the same budget process as every other town department, but said the library could not produce a reasonable plan showing the cost and location for running each library program while it’s in a temporary space.

“The BOF is not looking to reduce taxes,” she said. “They are looking to create a steady pattern, a predictable level of taxes, for the average taxpayer. We are not trying to make up the cuts from the state by using the library. We are strictly trying to look at our expenditures and be more responsible in how we approve them.”

The town pays for library operations, staff, and the mortgage on the building, but does not own the building and does not have line-item control over the library budget, including its salaries and benefits plan. This current fiscal year, the total library operating budget was $1,469,497. The town contributed $1,261,772 or roughly 85 percent before the mortgage payment, which is roughly $56,000 according to the town finance director.

In addition, the town is preparing to front $600,000 out of its fund balance to help with library construction before the first bond payment and then carry anywhere from $650,000 to $700,000 in debt service for the library building project over the next few years.

Fitzgerald said she knows the library wants to keep its staff, which currently includes 19 full- and part-time employees. In the current fiscal year, library salaries and benefits made up $1,150,554 of the total library budget. However, because the town does not have the authority to use a line item cut with the library budget, the library has to decide where to make the cuts in their budget.

“We have no control over how they prioritize these cuts,” she said. “There are other ways to cut and they do not seem to be exercising them. I can say that the town would be happy to help them look at their budget and find other ways to make the reduction besides these very drastic cuts.”

Voting Information

At ita meeting on Tuesday, April 24 (after press time), the BOS is expected to set the town budget referendum for Tuesday, May 15.

Town Clerk Nancy Martucci reminds all residents that the town is officially moving to its summer hour schedule in May and may affect residents looking to obtain an absentee ballot for the budget referendum.

“If you plan to obtain an absentee ballot from the Town Clerk’s Office for the May 15, 2018 budget referendum, please plan accordingly with the new summer hours,” she said. “Monday, Tuesday, [and] Wednesday [from] 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Friday 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.”

The second Board of Finance budget public hearing is Thursday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Walter C. Polson Middle School.