Bisignani sets sights on paying off $800G deficit

SAUGUS – Speaking to the Saugus Finance Committee on Wednesday, Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said he?s hoping to have money in the free cash account once the books for fiscal year 2011 are closed to pay off a looming budget deficit for 2012.Bisignani said the town is facing around an $800,000 deficit heading into fiscal year 2012 after factoring in an estimated $250,000 in future building permit fees for the Walmart project on Route 1.?Going forward into fiscal year ?12, we do have some serious issues,” said Bisignani. “The budget is not balanced at this time. Hopefully that will change when we set the tax rate.”Bisignani said most of the deficit comes from the group health account and the vocational school assessment, but warned that issues with unemployment benefits, legal expenses and medicare lay on the horizon.?Dealing with those issues will get us to a level-funded, balanced budget so we can set the tax rate,” said Bisignani. “But going into the third and fourth quarter, there will be some problems. I?m just hoping we have surplus funds available to offset those deficits.”Bisignani said if additional revenue can?t be generated, he?ll call a special Town Meeting in November and may have to make cuts to the budget.In other business, the Finance Committee voted to refer a special Town Meeting article that would give Town Meeting authority to approve any changes to trash and recycling policies back to the Board of Selectmen.?In reading this, I don?t think it cleared up anything,” said Finance Committee member Ronald Jepson. “It muddied the water more and I agree they have to go back and work on the wording of the whole entire thing.”According to the article, “Any establishment, change, or implementation of rules and regulations ? relative to the collection of solid waste, trash, recycling ? shall occur after being approved by a majority vote of an Annual or Special Town Meeting.”In June, Town Meeting voted to send a proposed $2 trash overflow fee back to the selectmen, stating that any trash fees are to be established through a bylaw proposed by the Board of Selectmen and adopted by Town Meeting. But the Board of Health went ahead with the three-barrel limit on Aug. 1 without the fee.Ken DePatto, who was filling in for Robert Palleschi as chairman, said the article came to the Finance Committee because of the potential financial impact, but the committee felt it was too “ambiguous” to vote on.?Typically these things come to us if there are any financial implications,” said DePatto. “And we?re anticipating this will be financial in nature. Basically what we?re saying is we weren?t comfortable making a recommendation.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at @MattTempesta.