Saugus hit with higher budget cuts

SAUGUS-Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said the intent is to have the 2010 budget hit Town Meeting floor by May 18, but he said the state isn’t making it easy.Along with a $172,000 cut in state aid, Bisignani said he’s now learned the town’s charter school assessment is also going up more than $250,000.How much it goes up depends on whose budget is approved on the state level. Bisignani said in Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget the assessment is $597,000. In the House’s proposed budget it’s a whopping $859,000.”We certainly didn’t expect that increase,” he said.Bisignani called his budget proposal a work in progress largely due to the state’s own financial woes.”Given the instability on the state level that transcends down to the local establishment, we don’t know if there are any more cuts coming,” he said.There is also a proposed cut on the state level of the Quinn Bill, which is an education incentive for police officers. The Quinn bill is funded 50/50 by cities and towns and the state. With the state cutting its share, Bisignani said the town might be forced to cut its share as well, which would decimate the program.”We have it in the budget but if we don’t get any funding reinstated, I’m not sure we’ll be in the position where we’ll be able to fund the Quinn bill,” he said. “The state is really creating havoc.”Bisignani said the precarious nature of the state’s budget has tossed long term planning out the window and made even short term planning unreliable.”It’s extremely frustrating but it’s no ones fault,” he said. “It is what it is. I’ve been working with the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen and we’re all on the same page. We’re all working together.”Finance Committee Chairman Robert Palleschi agreed with Bisignani.”We working to try and get the budget ready by the 18th,” he said. “The state is making it hard, but you have to try and go with what you’ve got.”Palleschi said the Finance Committee will wrap up its hearings Wednesday when it sits down with leadership from the Northeast Metropolitan Vocational School to discuss tuition. Once that is complete, he said the committee will begin to debate the warrant articles. The committee cannot vote to approve or disapprove, it merely votes a recommendation of support or non-support.Palleschi said he expects the discussion to be fairly clear cut.”There’s not a lot surprising,” he said regarding the warrant. “We’re pretty much level funding everything.””There is a clear cut understanding of what we’re facing,” Bisignani added. “It’s all academics at this point.”