Swampscott cuts not as bad as expected

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott officials are breathing a sigh of relief after looking at Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1 billion in budget cuts released Wednesday evening.Town Administrator Andrew Maylor was bracing for cuts of almost $500,000 and an additional $150,000 in funding for Humphrey Street improvements.”The $150,000 for Humphrey Street streetscape funding is gone, but beyond that there really is minimal local impact,” he said. “It’s certainly better news than we anticipated.”Maylor said he had feared layoffs could be necessary mid-year, but it appears that is not necessary and he expects the town would receive approximately $50,000 less than anticipated in funding for the current fiscal year.”It’s certainly unusual to view cuts as good news, but this is good news compared to what we anticipated. I believe there will not be staff reductions in FY’09 due to this round of budget cuts,” he said. “Of course if there are additional cuts in state aid all bets are off.”Maylor said the governor’s cuts would affect the town in terms of community policing, Special Education (SPED) circuit breaker and all-day kindergarten grants.Maylor said the state cut SPED circuit breakers by approximately 5.9 percent, community police by 23.4 percent and all-day kindergarten by 9 percent.”My own take on what I saw and what I am continuing to look at are the three obvious lines that would be impacted locally,” he said. “I tried to translate that into what it would mean in terms of dollars for Swampscott. As it stands now I see our cuts being in the vicinity of $50,000.”Maylor said the Commissioner of the Department of Education indicated his department may be able to absorb any cuts made to all-day kindergarten and SPED circuit breaker.”I expect the overall impact of these cuts to be minimal in Swampscott for FY’09,” he said. “It is certainly better news than anticipated, but things don’t look good for FY’10.”