Winchester Residents Could Avoid Override Vote

Winchester may not have to face an override vote after all.

According to Town Manager Richard Howard, the state recently announced that Chapter 70 funds would increase by $150 million statewide. And due to the town’s growing school enrollment, Winchester will see between $800 and $900K in state funds.

“We can begin to alter the assumptions we made early on,” Howard said.

One of those assumptions was an override.

“I think we can get part of the way there without an override,” Howard said.

A year ago, when faced with a , Winchester residents

In December, Acting Town Manager Mary Ellen Lannon said that the town is looking at a $451,000 deficit in FY’13, but that in order to sufficiently fund the schools, an override will be needed. However, with the increase in state funds, Howard said that an override may not be needed.

“It’s an interesting proposal,” Selectman Jim Johnson said about the budget. “I think the assumption of developing a balanced budget without an override is an interesting goal and I hope we can achieve that.”

According to Howard, one of his main goals with this budget is to decrease the town’s reliance on free cash. In the proposed budget, Howard said the town would use $930,000 of free cash, which would be $670,000 less than last year’s amount.

“We plan on maintaining level services, while weaning the town off of free cash,” Howard said. “Our main goal will be to have a level services budget. We won’t be increasing services, but we won’t be decreasing personnel, there will be no layoffs.”

Howard also plans on implementing health care reform and putting money into a stabilization fund.

And while the school department , Howard said in the current budget, the school department’s budget would increase by 5.1 percent. 

Members of the School Committee will be at the Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday, Feb. 7 to discuss in further detail their proposed budget.

The selectmen were intrigued with Howard’s proposed budget.

“To achieve this without an operation budget and to be able to go longer without the need for additional tax revenue would be good,” said Selectman Thomas Howley. “There’s much about this that I like.”