Shrewsbury budget talks begin early
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - In an eff ort to provide residents with as much advanced information as possible, the Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee have already begun preliminary fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget talks.

Although the town doesn't even have its concrete FY 2008 budget numbers, let alone FY 2009 numbers, Board of Selectmen Chair Maurice DePalo said the town can definitely benefit from philosophical talks about the budget and try to determine which areas of service are most important to people.

"The intent is to look at issues and get a sense of the magnitude of the issues we're facing," DePalo said.

Members of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee detailed their top priorities heading into the new budget season.

On the municipal side, maintaining services was the top priority, but board members said it's been getting increasingly difficult to do as the gap between expenses and revenue continues to grow.

"We have to ask, 'Do we continue funding many things inadequately or are we going to get down and make some difficult decisions to start funding fewer things adequately?'" Selectman Moira Miller said.

As the town looks for areas to scale back, Selectman John Lebeaux said there would be no "sacred cows" in the town budget.

"I'm not willing to single out any department and put it on the chopping block," Lebeaux said. "We have to look at the entire picture and make our decisions from there."

School Committee members had a list of priorities, saying their goal was less about maintaining the current program and more about digging out from the difficult cuts they've been living with.

Among the top priorities for the school budget is increasing staffing at the high school to decrease study halls and increase electives, maintaining three newly hired elementary school teachers, and reducing fees.

Shrewsbury parents currently pay $210 for their children to ride the bus, $290 per season per sport per child, plus a $50 per middle school student and $100 per high school student activity fee.

"Parents are paying in many cases more than $1,000 to have their children ride the bus, participate in sports and after-school activities," Deborah Peeples said. "People are very unhappy that the cost of education is being put on families."

The groups also discussed upcoming building projects the town must keep in mind while developing the budget, including renovations to the library, Beal School and the police station.

Not everyone at the meeting was as enthusiastic about the early budget discussions. Some members of the Finance Committee were critical of a budget meeting with no numbers as well as the implication that the town needs to determine what values its residents have.

"People want to get up and see water come out of the shower," Finance Committee member Donna Largess O'Connor said. "They want to put their trash on the curb, they want their children to go to school, they want the police to patrol, they want the Fire Department to come if they're called and they want an ambulanced there if they need them."

DePalo apologized to people who may have felt the meeting was unnecessary, but said it was the best way he could see to give residents as much information as possible and allow for the most input into budget discussions.

"I know we don't have all of the information but a lot of this is philosophical and a lot of it is ideas," he said. "If we don't generate ideas we're going to be in the same situation."

The first public hearing on the budget will be held Monday Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.