Hometown Weekly Staff
Westwood’s financial committees and boards are continuing to develop the town’s fiscal year 2017 budget, and recently provided an update on the status of the budget to the Board of Selectmen at its January 1 meeting.
Westwood Finance Director Pam Dukeman presented an update on the budget process, which is in the planning stages between the Finance and Warrant Commission, the Budget Steering Committee, and the Long Range Planning Committee.
Dukeman said the town expects $2.6 million will be available for spending from the University Station development in 2017, and provided a breakdown on how the proposed budget would use the new funds.
Usually, the town can afford to increase its operating budget by a maximum of 2.5 percent each year. With the additional revenue from University Station, Dukeman said the latest budget proposal will allow the town to up its budgets beyond that 2.5 percent mark. An additional $598,000 would be added to the town’s school operating budget, and an additional $272,000 would be added to the municipal operating budget, an increase of 4 percent.
The new budget proposal appropriates $800,000 of University Station revenue to be used for debt service. Dukeman explained that the appropriation would be useful for several major capital projects the town plans to undertake over the next year, including building a new police station, as it would help to eliminate the need for an override to fund the projects.
“We really don’t want to raise people’s taxes if we don’t have to,” Dukeman said.
Tax relief has been a major discussion point during the planning of the fiscal year 2017 budget. Dukeman said the committees are examining several tools available for tax relief. They include general tax relief, accomplished by not using the full 2 ½ percent tax levy, or paying for debt within proposition 2 ½ instead of seeking a debt exemption.
The current budget proposal calls to appropriate $800,000 of University Station revenue for tax relief for all Westwood residents, which would save the average Westwood homeowner $104 on their property taxes.
An additional option involves maintaining the town’s commercial tax shift, which sets a lower property tax rate for residential properties and a higher tax rate for commercial properties.
“The Selectmen and the assessors are working really hard to work that shift so that we get the most bang for our residents from that at the same time protecting the growth of the commercial,” Dukeman said.
The final two options are new to the town and are pending town meeting approval at a future town meeting.
One proposed town meeting article would appropriate $500,000 to reduce the tax levy in Westwood, which would reduce the average Westwood homeowner’s property taxes by $65
A second town meeting article would adopt a Home Rule Petition to grant tax relief to senior citizens. The budget drafts in January initially allotted $200,000 of the University Station revenue to go towards providing tax relief for seniors, but Dukeman said that the town is waiting to see if the Home Rule Petition article is passed before appropriating funds to senior tax relief.
Currently, tax relief for seniors is funded through donations to the Aid to the Elderly and Disabled fund. The warrant would allow the town to appropriate town money directly into the fund, providing for town-funded tax relief for seniors.
The fiscal year 2017 municipal budget includes a request for a 3.70 percent increase, which translates to an additional $672,259 into the town’s municipal budget. The increase is down from the 6.5 percent, or $1.1 million increase Dukeman projected at a Board of Selectmen meeting in January.
“We just really worked hard with our department heads to take that down,” Dukeman said. “We are being very cautions with our operating budget.”
Dukeman explained that most of the reductions came from eliminating “what-if” spending, money different departments asked for in the event that a certain event necessitated the need for more funding. She said that the fiscal year 2017 budget will reflect what is known, and any additional spending will be dealt with when it comes up.
The most significant chunk of the proposed increase comes from proposed salary increases for town employees, totaling $305,000 and includes cost-of-living and step adjustments for all town employees.
Other changes driving the need for more municipal spending includes $94,000 for new positions and increases in hours for town departments, including the Community Economic Development Department, which was restructured last year.
