Winchester Town Manager Recommends No Override

After voting against an override last year, Winchester residents may not have to make that decision again this year.

Town Manager Richard Howard submitted his proposed 2013 budget last week to the Finance Committee and said that an override is not needed. However, according to Howard, while there won’t be an override vote this year, one may be needed in the next year or two in order to prevent service cuts.

“There are very few fields of expenditures where substantial savings can be achieved without cuts to departmental personnel,” Howard said. “The town, at some point in the near future, will have to face the question of authorizing additional revenues or insisting on cutbacks to existing programs and levels of service.”

According to Howard, the goal of this budget is to provide level services for all town departments without the need for an override, while reducing the amount of reserves relied upon to balance the budget and to reform the town’s health care plan.

The town will be using $600,000 less of its reserves for this budget than it did a year ago, Howard said. The objective, according to Howard, is to use recurring revenues to pay for expenditures.

“Reserves should be held for true unforeseen emergencies or for one-time expenditures,” Howard said.

The only area of the budget that sees a substantial increase is the school department. Originally the schools were asking for a 7.36 percent increase from last year’s amount. Howard included a $1,847,221 or 5.2 percent increase for the 2013 school budget.

“The level of increase for education covers the costs for negotiated salary increases and mandated services for special education and English language learners,” Howard said. “All other departmental budgets are increased mainly for the costs of negotiated salary increases. There are no additional full-time positions proposed in any departments beyond those budgeted in FY 2012.”

Howard said that this budget attempts to curtail spending.

“All in all there is a serious attempt within this budget to limit spending at or below the estimates that have been outlined in recent budget forecasts,” Howard said. “We will continue to seek reductions and/or savings where attainable without compromising on services.”

Howard is requesting $81,728,713 for the 2013 budget, a decrease of nearly $8 million from the 2012 budget ($89,746,195).

The budget will now be discussed by the Finance Committee, but Howard said that if approved, this budget can help Winchester over the next several years.

“Although the spending proposed in this budget is very tight, if this framework is adhered to it will put in place a more realistic plan by which the goals can be achieved non only in FY 2013, but more importantly, in several budgetary years ahead,” Howard said.