$250,000 Surplus
Factored In
To Town Budget

By M. D. Drysdale

The Randolph Selectboard last week Monday adopted a new budget for 2008-9 after an unusually smooth budgeting process.

Selectman Larry Townsend, who served as a liaison to the budget committee, presented the proposal Nov. 26 to the full selectboard, which approved it with few changes.

For the second year in a row, the budgeters were able to work with a substantial surplus dating to the end of the fiscal year June 30. This time, the total surplus totaled more than a quarter-million dollars—$98,003 in the Highway Fund and $144,250 in the General Fund.

Some $218,000 was put in next year’s budget as a revenue item, which will reduce taxes by that amount. $35,000 will be put in reserve.

The budget was a conservative one, with very few new items, Town Manager Peter Butterfield told the selectboard. The major growth factors were a 4% salary increase for employees, as required under the union contract, and a 7% increase in health insurance payments. In today’s world, 7% is a small increase, Butterfield noted.

Despite the conservative budget, however, and despite the $218,000 influx from the surplus, an increase in municipal taxes will be required.

Under the budget approved by the selectboard, the total taxes needed for general government, capital expenditures, and transportation would rise from $2,402,651 to $2,551,609, an increase of 6.2%.

The increase would be steepest in the general government budget, which shows an 11% rise. The highway department tax would rise 5% and the capital budget just 1.5%. Those in the police district would pay 5% more for police protection.

The good news: water and sewer rates would not change, as both those departments are accumulating sufficient reserves.

Butterfield explained that the higher tax increase for general government is partly because of an accounting change. The salaries of town-wide officials, such as the manager, have in the past been spread around various departments. The manager’s salary has been charged off partly to general government, partly to highways, and partly to the special districts.

New accounting theories, however, say that’s a bad idea, since it makes it difficult for the public to understand how much people are being paid. In addition, Butterfield said, time studies have shown that the special districts are being charged too much for administrative support.

Therefore, the entire salaries for the town clerk ($44,054), manager ($57,325), finance director ($46,790) and administrative help are now being charged to the general budget, increasing it somewhat, while decreasing other budgets by the same amount.

The police district, for instance, last year was charged $17,000 for administrative allotments, and the changes made the police budget that much lower.

The only new initiatives, Town Manager Butterfield said, are proposals to spend $6000 to map groundwater resources, $2630 for new flower baskets on the streets, and $2010 to help the Garden Club maintain the baskets so beautifully.

The capital budget, adopted just this week, was assigned $98,000 of the surplus. That allowed the tax for that budget to rise just 1.5%, from $716,845 to $727,780.

Debt service for past projects is the biggest item in the capital budget, at $543,000. New capital projects will be $82,000 in repairs in three municipal buildings, $40,000 for the local share of flood repairs, a final $47,000 for the local share of the Main Street bridge, and $30,000 for streetscape work.

The budget committee, working with Townsend, prepared the budgets that were largely accepted by the selectboard. The committee is composed of Carol Flint, chair, Judy Soules and Kevin Haupt.