SWAMPSCOTT — The 2024 fiscal year (FY) budget planning has started for the Finance Committee. The committee met with Town Accountant Amy Sarro Tuesday evening to begin the process of that planning.
Sarro kicked off the budget discussion with health insurance appropriations.
“I did the preliminary draft projection for our health insurance which is obviously one of our biggest line items,” Sarro said. “So last year, our health insurance appropriation was $6.8 million.”
This year’s rates will not be released until open enrollment begins, which will be just before Town Meeting, she said. After going through each of the health care plans and averaging the rate increase over the past three years she was able to find a projected number for FY 24.
“With all of that, the preliminary draft production for FY 24 is 7.168 million on the health insurance which is 5.3% increase over that fiscal 23 appropriation,” Sarro said.
The next line item that was discussed was pension costs.
“Last year, the pension appropriation was $5.6 million, … The town’s portion of the pension contribution for FY 24 is $5.9 million, so a 5.9% increase over last year,” Sarro said.
The pensions system will be fully funded by 2031 due to past generations not paying, she said.
“People many eons ago were not paying into the pension system across the Commonwealth as a whole so they had to pass legislation that said you have to work on getting your pension system fully funded,” Sarro said.
Along with Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald, Sarro has been meeting with department heads to go through their budgets. She met with the fire and police chiefs Tuesday to work through those budgets.
They are making “tough cuts at this point” due the fact that the current expenditures are $1.5 million over the target number.
“Being with the department heads, obviously, departments that have collective bargaining units, or things that, you know, you can’t level funds unless you’re reducing staff,” Sarro said. “Ideally, we don’t want to cut any staff so we work with them to come up with what a reasonable budget is, what a reasonable increase is that can fit within the confines.”
