Nahant town administrator delivers grim forecast

NAHANT – The budget news presented to department heads by Town Administrator Mark Cullinan at a Tuesday morning meeting was not good.
Cullinan said he informed department heads the next fiscal year is going to be tough, and with the exception of contractual increases, budgets would be level funded at best.
?I don’t anticipate any layoffs at this point,” he said. “Given what I know today we will have $116,000 more in revenue but contractual salary increases total $90,000 and we will have increases in health insurance. We will have (no) increase in all other line items.”
Cullinan said $10 million was appropriated for FY ’09 budget and the town used $300,000 in free cash to balance the budget.
?This year we have only have $145,000 in free cash and other funds available to balance the budget,” he said. “I expect to appropriate $10.1 million. It’s going to be very tight.”
Cullinan said utility costs, transportation costs and all expenses except contractual salary increases would be level funded in the next fiscal year.
?We have to cut back wherever we can,” he said. “The departments will have to manage with what they have and we need to find ways to conserve to help contain energy costs.”
Cullinan said at this point he expects the town would be able to maintain its current level of services and layoffs would probably not be necessary. But he said it may be necessary to renegotiate contracts with outside vendors to help balance the budget and the town could not take on any new capital projects or assume any new debt.
Selectman Richard Lombard said the town had more than its share of layoffs in the past and he is thankful layoffs are not imminent.
?We had massive layoffs about 15 years ago,” he said. “We’re down to minimum staffing and at the bare minimum in the police, fire and public works departments. We can’t reduce personnel anymore. Even though we’re at minimum staffing levels across the board everyone is performing in an outstanding manner in every department.”
Despite the fiscal constraints the town is under, Cullinan said it’s in better shape than many neighboring communities because such a small percentage of the town budget comes from state aid.
I am assuming a 2 percent decrease in state aid,” he said. “But we only receive about $800,000 in state aid each year. Only 8 percent of our operating budget comes from state aid. I expect we will lose between $30,000 and $40,000 in state aid but communities that get 50 percent of their funding will lose a large portion of their budget if state aid is reduced.”