Select Board approves $10.7 million budget

The Springfield Select Board has approved a new town budget for the fiscal year 2015-2016, which includes a proposed 2.7 percent increase in taxes.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150123/NEWS02/701239975

Published January 23, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Select Board approves $10.7 million budget By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Select Board has approved a new town budget for the fiscal year 2015-2016, which includes a proposed 2.7 percent increase in taxes. The $10,766,061 million spending plan comes with some pain; the town’s oft-discussed efforts to put more money into its neglected roads and highway was a late casualty. The amount to be raised through local property taxes will be $8,780,931, which is a 2.7 percent increase over last year’s tax levy. Making the Select Board job more difficult than usual was the fact that this budget included the first annual payment of $190,000 on $30 million the town recently spent on water, sewer and stormwater system improvements. The plan to spend $500,000 a year on paving and $100,000 on road reconstruction didn’t survive the budget sessions, as they were cut to $260,000 for paving and $50,000 for construction. It was the public works budget of $2.3 million that sustained the bulk of the cuts to bring down the proposed budget increase to what the Select Board said was a manageable level. The vote was unanimous in support of the budget and will be voted on by residents March 3, which is Town Meeting Day. The Select Board had a late addition to the budget, in the form of a $90,000 estimate to make foundation repairs to the Springfield Community Center, which is the home to the Springfield Parks and Recreation Department, including the senior center. The board took $30,000 from the department’s capital reserve fund, earmarked for a new pickup and ongoing repairs to the town’s pool, to offset the cost of the foundation repairs. The board also cut about $5,500 from the Springfield Town Library’s energy efficiency lighting project, bringing the total down to $10,000. The Select Board had heard from the town’s budget committee, which at the last minute had recommended an across-the-board cut in all budgets of 1.8 percent. The budget committee also said it recommended a town meeting article calling for a separate appropriation of $100,000 to be used to repair the town’s dilapidated sidewalks. But the focus was on the public works department’s budget, which as Selectman David Yesman said, had the biggest budget and the biggest request of $2.3 million, and thus was the obvious target. “Let’s make some big cuts,” Yesman said at one point in frustration. The Select Board did split over a proposal to cut $40,000 earmarked toward the purchase of a used rescue truck for the Springfield Fire Department. The truck carries equipment. Yesman said the truck did have some rust, but it worked fine. Yesman and fellow Selectman Peter MacGillivray and George McNaughton voted for the $40,000 cut. Opposing the cut were Chairman Kristi Morris and Selectwoman Stephanie Thompson. Town Manager Tom Yennerell asked Public Works Director Jeffrey Strong which of his budgets could best survive cuts, and Strong urged the Select Board not to cut his equipment budget. Everett Hammond, chairman of the budget committee, said the budget, as proposed, would have called for a 6.1 percent increase in taxes, something he said the committee would not support. He said the committee believed a 2.9 percent tax increase was something “that would fly.”