Another Town Meeting needed to deal with Westport deficit

Another Town Meeting needed to deal with Westport deficit

WESTPORT — Fresh off its Oct. 27 special Town Meeting, the town has scheduled another one for Dec. 1 to deal with its budget deficit.

Town Administrator Michael J. Coughlin said the town needs to trim its budget by at least another $300,000. He said one reason for the short turnaround in town meetings is the lowering of the town's free cash calculation by the state Department of Revenue to minus-$39,045.

Coughlin said the DOR says the town did not account correctly for transfers from its debt service reserve as far as state school building fund reimbursements.

He said the town can't set the property tax rate until it has a balanced budget; as a result, the assessors have not yet set a tax rate, although they suggested a range. Selectmen did agree to keep the residential and commercial tax rates the same, as has been the case in the past.

On Monday, selectmen voted to cut their own salaries by 3.6 percent.

"Hopefully, by leading by example, the Board of Selectmen will prompt other elected or appointed officials who receive stipends to do the same," Coughlin said.

Coughlin previously offered to take a nine-day furlough. He said he hoped town department heads would consider furloughs as a way to cut costs and avoid layoffs.

Although the governor did not cut local aid in his latest round of cuts, Coughlin said the town still has to anticipate future budget shortfalls.

He said that in a meeting with department heads recently, they expressed a willingness to cut costs but by "no more than $300,000 at this time."

Coughlin said department heads want to see "some control over the snow and ice (removal budget) to be fiscally prudent. They want effective managerial cost controls in place."

He said there has been a "tremendous increase" in the costs of dealing with snow and ice the past few years, even when there was not a significant increase in the number of snowstorms.

Snow and ice expenditures increased from $164,000 in fiscal 2007 to $193,000 in 2008 to $379,000 last year.

Asked about the rising costs, Highway Surveyor Harold "Jack" Sisson Jr. said there were five big storms last year. He said they all seemed to happen on weekends, which meant paying overtime to highway department workers. Sisson said the town pays double time on Sundays.

Sisson said other towns may slash snow removal costs this coming winter to save money, but he sees it as a public safety issue.

Selectmen also voted Monday to form a committee to look into the possible sale of surplus land.

As for town-owned land that might be sold, Coughlin said there has been "a little increase through tax title," or nonpayment of taxes, in the number of town-owned properties but not a significant number.