Proposed budget shows increase of 7-1/2 percent
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Northborough - Town Administrator Barry Brenner presented to the Board of Selectmen at its Jan. 28 meeting a fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget in the amount of $15.56 million, an increase of 7-1/2 percent over the current year's budget.

The budget kept municipal programs, services and opera- tions at FY 2008 levels, as the selectmen had requested.

The budget Brenner presented was one of two the board has requested. The other, a proposed FY 2009 budget that keeps the town within Proposition 2-1/2 mandates, will be presented to the board at its Feb. 11 meeting, Brenner said.

In explaining the rise of almost $1.1 million, despite keeping programs at current levels, Brenner pointed out five cost factors - health insurance, county assessment, state assessments, Workers' Compensation and FICA costs, and wage adjustments - that the town is required to absorb. Those FY 2009 adjustments boosted the budget total by more than $1 million.

Health insurance premiums for municipal employees and the Northborough K-8 school system are expected to increase about 13 percent, which translates to a dollar figure of $528,000.

The town's assessment for the Worcester Regional Retirement System, which encompasses municipal employees and nonteaching Northborough K-8 school system employees, will see an increase of 18 percent ($119,000).

State assessments will increase $95,000. Included in the assessment will be a charge of $52,000 for tuition for charter schools as well as the cost of tuition and transportation ($38,000) to send a Northborough resident to Norfolk Agricultural High School.

Workers' Compensation premiums are expected to increase 10 percent for municipal employees and Northborough K-8 school employees and the cost of FICA premiums for the same two groups is going up as well. The total cost of the increase is expected to be about $28,000.

Wage adjustments for contractual and non-contractual (union and nonunion) employees are expected to increase $246,000.

"I think what's important for residents to know is that all of these increases are non-negotiable on the town's part," Selectman Jeff Amberson said. "They're mandated. This isn't stuff we've added to the budget, so it's not a matter of cutting three police officers or three firemen to get below a certain number. These costs are going to be in there. We have no say in them."

The limitations of Proposition 2-1/2 translate into a dollar increase of $361,873, according to an estimate by Brenner.

Should the FY2009 budget stay where it is, although it almost surely will not, the cost diff erence between the projected FY 2009 increase, $1,086,833, and the allowance under Proposition 2-1/2, is $724,960. That total would then be subject to an override vote at Town Meeting and the ballot box in May.

Brenner called the potential financial help from the state, in the form of Lottery earnings and Chapter 70 state education increases, "disappointing."

"There is no magic cure, if you will," Brenner said. "All the cities and towns in the state are going to face budget difficulties in the upcoming year. Northborough is no diff erent."