Saugus FinCom not willing to spend

SAUGUS – Anyone seeking discretionary spending at the special Town Meeting scheduled for Oct. 27 might want to make other plans. Finance Committee members announced Wednesday they are not in the mood to spend.The 38-article warrant has articles sponsored by Town Manager Andrew Bisignani totaling roughly $79,000. They include $15,000 for a drug prevention program already operating at the middle school and a total of $53,575 to keep the library and Senior Center open for the rest of the fiscal year.In addition there are articles seeking an article seeking $80,000 for furniture for the schools, $150,000 to install handicap ramps around town, $25,000 for a sewer line on Eagle Road, $25,000 for an archeological survey of the town and $75,000 to supplement the Youth and Recreation budget.Although Bisignani started to meeting by announcing the town was in a relatively stable financial position not everyone agreed.With the economy in a tailspin, Finance Committee member Ronald Jepson wondered why the town isn’t curbing it’s spending rather than asking for extras.”I’m in the mind to spend as little as we can,” he said.Bisignani’s job is to present the articles. It is up to Town Meeting to determine what to do with the money. He also said he wasn’t concerned that Gov. Deval Patrick would cut local aid or educational funding-yet.”If we get cuts in earmarks we’ll have to take some action,” he said.Bisignani said potential earmark cuts could cost the town upwards of $500,000. Committee member Lou Rossi said the overall risk to the budget was much higher.Rossi argued that if the economy continues its downward spiral, predicted revenues such as building permits and excise taxes could drop, opening up a host of financial problems for the town.”I would err on the side of being conservative,” he said. “It could get a lot worse.”Jepson, along with vice-Chairman Ken DePato agreed the town seemed more vulnerable now than ever.Town Moderator Robert Long said it was unfair of Bisignani to ask the town to spend money now for bills that wouldn’t come due until spring.The Senior Center and library will run out of funding around April, 2009 but Bisignani is seeking to raise the money now before the tax rate is set.He said if the town felt the same as Long, “then they have the option of not voting it.”