Swampscott releases FY’09 budget; layoffs to come

SWAMPSCOTT – The town side of the FY’09 budget is balanced, but it calls for staff reductions in Town Hall.According to Town Administrator Andrew Maylor, staff size would be reduced by 1.5 fulltime equivalents.Maylor said there are not any new positions, programs or requests in his bare bones budget.Maylor said the $51.4 million budget, which does not include the $2.70 million debt exclusion for the high school, is a $1.9 million increase over the FY’08 budget. He said much of the increase is due to contractual salary increases and other fixed costs including utility increases.Maylor said the good news for the upcoming fiscal year is the cost of health insurance for town employees, which has increased by approximately 13 percent annually for the last six years, did not increase.Maylor said the town paid more than $4.3 million for health insurance premiums this fiscal year and in his preliminary FY’09 budget he factored in a 12.5 percent rate increase for health insurance.Maylor said because premiums are not increasing as expected the town would save approximately $400,000 of what was initially budgeted for health insurance. He said $20,000 of that would go towards the increase in health insurance costs for retirees. Maylor said he is giving the school department $220,000 and the balance would go into various reserve accounts.Another technique being used to balance the budget is the capital outlay expenditure exclusion procedure. Proposition 2 1/2 allows a community to finance expenditures through a one-year only property tax surcharge with a capital exclusion vote and the Capital Improvement Committee is recommending the town use the outlay expenditure exclusion procedure to fund $450,000 in capital projects.A Capital Improvement Committee report recommends using the outlay expenditure exclusion procedure to fund $450,000 in capital projects – $300,000 for a new fire engine and $150,000 for the first year of a 10-year road improvement plan, which if passed could cost the average homeowner approximately $120 in a one-time tax surcharge.Selectman Marc Paster said he is pleased layoffs were kept to a minimum and there aren’t any drastic cuts in services.”I think Andrew (Maylor) did an excellent job preparing the budget,” he said. “I think it will work well and is something everyone can live with.”