Health Department prepares dual budgets
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Shrewsbury - Town Manager Daniel Morgado has asked the Shrewsbury Health Department to prepare two fiscal year (FY) 2009 budgets, one that includes a payas you-throw trash removal fee and one that doesn't.

Public Health Director Nancy Allen said the diff erent budgets will reflect the amount of money available for each program depending on whether or not curbside pickup service is still offered to residents free of charge.

"We'll need to ask for a little less in other areas if we fully fund curbside pickup, and this will allow the Board of Selectmen to see what it will look like with pay-as-you-throw and without it," Allen said.

Morgado said it is not uncommon to ask a particular department to prepare two separate budgets to illustrate how diff erent decisions on the part of the Board of Selectmen will aff ect the numbers.

He said he and the Board of Selectmen will look at both budgets individually, to see how each will impact not only the Health Department, but the entire town.

"We look at no expense "area and no revenue area in exclusion," Morgado said. "The budget is very much like a balloon. If you press in one area, it's going to bulge out in another."

Pay-as-you-throw trash removal has been a topic of heated debate in Shrewsbury since FY 2008 budget talks. The program is a way the town can increase revenue without a Proposition 2-1/2 override, and is a proven tool to increase recycling and reduce the amount of trash.

Shrewsbury residents currently generate 11,000 tons of rubbish per year. Allen said that number could drop by 25 percent to 50 percent with a pay-as-you-throw program.

Opponents argue that charging people per bag will unfairly aff ect people on fixed incomes as well as Shrewsbury's less affluent residents.

Allen said she hopes to have both budget numbers ready for Morgado by Tuesday Jan. 1, 2008.