Town Administrator's FY 2004 Budget Message continued:

Balancing this year's budget is also especially challenging given the state's fiscal dilemma. In prior fiscal crisis years (1980 & 1990), there was a feeling of hope because the economy beyond Massachusetts was such that recovery was only one or two years away. Considering that all 50 states are facing deficits today, our national economy continues to slip and shows no serious signs of rebound, and an ever growing concern surrounding a military conflict in the Middle East, we must accept the fact that aid and assistance coming into Walpole is simply not going to happen - for many years. Further, Walpole and many other communities across the Commonwealth have shown their support at the polls for candidates who pledge not to raise taxes as well as support tax cut initiatives on the state ballot. Thus we as local leaders must take control of this budget and put permanent solutions in place ourselves. In this case, those solutions appear to be limited to actual reductions in a manner such as I have presented to you here. It is true that some opportunity exists for a level of cost recovery through fee increases, such as in the school system or with solid waste costs, however one must ask the question if the community is prepared for such a solution. The taxpayers and ratepayers in Walpole will already see an average increase of $59 for existing school debt projects and an approximately $58 increase in water rates resulting from increased debt costs. Couple these with the uncertain state economy and the annual increase allowed under proposition 2½, and the question of "ability to pay" is a very legitimate one.

Again, the mandate that is before us is to make whatever solution or solutions we chose to fund this budget sustainable into next year and beyond. There will likely be a call for your boards and committees to support the use of free cash and/or stabilization fund to cover a portion or all of these proposed budget reductions. I can not impress upon you enough to avoid this temptation at all costs. Yes it is very discouraging to be cutting personnel while we have so called "money in the bank." However, that banked savings of funds has been identified as our ability to address major capital and infrastructure needs as well as our continued push to improve our financial ratings. Drawing on those precious reserves to provide a "quick fix" will most certainly result in lower bond ratings, and with additional borrowings scheduled to pay for our projects, the result is a higher borrowing cost that gets directly passed on to our taxpayers. In addition, our free cash is an appropriate method of funding one-time expenses. This year, we will use it to make capital purchases and to fund the one-time increase in our unemployment account. Without that free cash, we will again fall prey to an inability to repair or replaced aged and broken equipment or to make major repairs to our facilities. I urge you to not fall into the same trap our state government did last year. Our legislators raided their one time "rainy day" fund, and this year they still have the costs but have no ability to pay the bill, and worse, the dollars that were available to fund capital expenses are no longer there and are not coming back.

In an effort to help reduce municipal costs, last Wednesday I sent to Governor Romney and all our legislators a nine page report of state mandates, rules and regulations that have been identified by our municipal department heads as either costly or burdensome on our overall operations. This list included such initiatives as eliminating the state prevailing wage law as well as very costly construction and design requirements, allowing communities to have more flexibility in purchasing goods and services, providing an early retirement incentive to allow some to retire and avoid costly layoffs, reexamining archaic personnel regulations, and eliminating chapter 40B housing mandates upon municipalities that allow for mega housing projects that fly in the face of town zoning. We are committed to working closely with the Governor and our representatives in the General Court to help bring about many of these needed changes. But we also need the assistance of our residents to make our case louder and stronger at the state level. We will make this mandate report available to any resident who desires to help, on all the points or even just one. Our representatives and senator hear from town officials on these topics all the time, and perhaps the results will be even greater with citizen involvement.

CONTINUED