Town Manager Bob Forguites said that personnel expenses and the ever-fluctuating price of fuel, account for a 9 percent increase in the town's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.
Monday, December 22, 2008
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Springfield Town Manager Bob Forguites said that personnel expenses and the ever-fluctuating price of fuel, account for a 9 percent increase in the town's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009.
ReplyDeleteThe proposed budget is $9.2 million, an increase of more than $800,000 from the current year's budget. There is a proposed increase in the town's capital budget of $1.3 million.
In his introduction to the budget, Forguites outlined several of the proposed increases associated with town employees.
"Since the last budget was prepared we have settled four bargaining unit contracts that included wage scale adjustments," he wrote. "The salary line items have two years of increases in them because last year we carried one figure for total salary increases, instead of breaking them down by department."
Other items driving up the budget include a $45,000 increase in health insurance for town employees, as well as a bond payment on, and expenses associated with the new headquarters of the Springfield Police Department on Clinton Street. The Springfield Public Works Department is seeking to use money from the town's highway equipment fund to purchase a new dump and plow truck, and two 1,800-pound trucks. Other large projects in next year's proposed budget include $795,000 for repaving work on Summer Street, for which the town expects to receive $175,000 from the state.
One expense that did decrease was workers compensation coverage, which went down by about $40,000. The town has set up a series of budget review sessions after the New Year. Department heads will account for their parts of the budget on Jan. 6 and Jan. 8, with two budget workshops follwing on Jan. 12 and 14, with a public hearing and possible adoption scheduled for Jan. 19.
By Katie Beth Ryan, Staff Writer
Eagle-Times