Selectboard meeting Notes – FY26 Revenues and Reductions
FY26 Budget Re-Development (6:40 PM)
(i) Revenues (6:40 PM)
(ii) 2024-25 Selectboard Budget Reductions (7:10 PM)
(iii) Possible Service Reductions other than Public Safety (8:00 PM)
I won’t be doing the usual transcription-style tonight. It’s too many meetings to type that much. But I will watch and give you highlights. And I’ll make a rare pitch – if you’d like to make a donation to help underwrite all of this, it does help. On to the show.
….
First off, they instituted a new sign up per topic list for those in the room, adding another level of confusion/intimidation for members of the public who must now anticipate what will be said and if they might like to respond.
Second, public participation was held in the middle of the first topic. (Interestingly, Chair McLaughlin replied to one question that she could decide which public emails to the board could be made public, and that she could protect some people’s anonymous comments if she chose.)
Third, the decisions tonight are for the purpose of creating next week’s budget. Some may be dropped after they see the budget next week. Don’t totally freak out. You have time to raise your objections.
….
Here are the revenue ideas they discussed in detail:
All the previous board items that were skipped are agreed to now.
PAYT Revenues – Garbage cart rental fees likely in the future, maybe enforced with a sticker. There is a year to plan and this could change.
Vacant Properties – Fees will be collected for violating properties as planned previously.
Hotel Program – The Town has no leverage; must work with state they are told.
Business licenses – Fee increase to $100 approved. But it is annoying, they mostly agree.
Non-Profit Business License Fee – Fees from $50 – $300 depending on size of non-profit with possible exemptions suggested. After some discussion, they are told non-profits already pay a $50 fee, and some make contributions in lieu of taxes. So, they decide to raise the non profit business license fee to $100, and to encourage more non-profits to pay PILOT. But the public says this is vague, for budgeting purposes. They decide to see what it looks like in the draft budget.
Increase Dog License Fees -It is a state-set fee. Talk to legislators, they are told.
Cat Licenses – Liz suggests $12-16 fee. There could be $52,000 worth of cats out there, she says. They need to do their part, she says. These are the hard choices, she says. Voted down 2-3 by new board members.
Increasing Fees for Teams and Leagues – Town staff don’t like this idea. Won’t happen.
Adult Library Fees – Not permitted under state law.
Non-Resident Library Fees – $62 a year currently. Public worries that raising this cost reduces library use. Liz says someone told her they could double the fees. Nothing new added here.
Asking the State Delegation – Requesting increasing revenue enhancements of to the Town from the State, so that the Local Option Tax percentage of 70% received increases. Plus a road mileage tax to help with roads. And urban aid to towns that host services that are expensive to run.
Pickleball – Players aren’t paying the fees when playing outside? asks the public. Yes, says the town, that was a problem and while there is no pickleball line item, enforcement is now underway.
……
Here are the budget reduction ideas they discussed in detail:
Town Manager reviewed reductions of previous board, both approved and unapproved.
Deferring Records Restoration – Town has an obligation to update records to keep them in good condition. No change.
LMP Shelter Roof vs Esteyville Gazebo – Funding for gazebo was reduced to pay for shelter roof. It remains that way.
Advanced Captioning Software Cost – ASL costs $13k, and advanced transcription for BCTV is about $2k. Oscar mentions the value of the money going to people in the community rather than a software company. But interpreters will get cut.
Arts Fund – Members of the public spoke for the value of the Town Arts Fund, both the low cost and high impact of the program. And for cutting the fund. Board decides to restore $15k for this item. 5-0 agreement.
Leaf Collection – Currently out of the budget, and will remain out of the budget. Get rid of your leaves some other way from now on.
Recreation Fees – Carol Lolatte suggests spreading out the day camp fee increases to a smaller increase of facility use fees, so the day camp fee increase can be smaller. The Board likes this suggestion.
Reduce employee recognition – ok.
Eliminate bike capital funding – Reduce to $5k rather than eliminate? No.
Police expenses cut – $5500. Ok.
Eliminate Traffic Safety Budget for consultants – ok.
Split fire car purchase over two fiscal years – ok.
Defer IT position – ok.
Defer Finance Director – ok. Town Manager says no one will apply at the salary level being offered.
Intersection improvements – Cut $100k? Cut $50k? No.
Cut the Moover contribution – This could lose Saturday(or more) service and save $50k. There are also federal cuts in the works to reduce service. The board decides to try cutting it by $25k instead.
Facility use fees up $5 – yes.
Accessible voting machine – Eliminate it? It is meant for blind or visually impaired voters and it is a glorified pen and tablet with a touchscreen, with an audio component, but isn’t used much. The alternative is to have people assist. Board decides to eliminate it.
Pool closed (or reduced hours) for summer – No.
The above will be incorporated into he draft budget.
….
By this point in the meeting it was almost 10 pm and the board was getting a bit tired, wondering where they were on the agenda and realizing they had one done 2/3 of their agenda.
Here are the possible service reductions discussion ideas:
The Town Manager has a big list to share with the board but it is getting late. The Chair says she has ideas.
Oscar says he’d like to skip going down the minutia of the list. He proposes no substantial changes to the departments, but to approve a hiring freeze instead, with some exemptions, to buy some time to make more in depth decisions.
Liz suggests reducing the hours of the library from 56 hours, to reduce services rather than personnel. She compares hours of operation of Brooks with those of tiny surrounding town libraries.
Oscar returned to the hiring freeze suggestion. Liz said they must make cuts tonight.
Isaac said they were tasked with taking a fresh look.
Amanda asked about DPW winter maintenance of sidewalks, Planning support for resilience in the community, or support for committees, Library social media and PR, helping the public with machines, recruiting employees for $68k, graphic design and video production, and finance department costs?
Isaac wanted to hear from department directors about where they see possible savings. Liz said that is unfortunate, and that he must review this information and ask questions. The Town Manager said there is limited time and suggested focusing on specific departments and specific cuts.
Liz asked again if the Library hours could be cut.
Oscar reminded the board that cutting library hours could mean layoffs. He said this is just a slightly different version of last year’s budget. He wanted the department heads more involved in creating the list.
Liz called the plan to have a hiring freeze “like Elon Musk and antithetical to what we are about.” The room reacted strongly against this.
Isaac reminded the board that Carol Lolatte demonstrated coming up with a good idea at tonight’s meeting, and that department heads should be more involved.
Pete thought reducing the tax burden was the goal, and didn’t have much sympathy for other board members feeling rushed.
Liz brought up Barb Sondag doing this process. (A former town manager, for you kids…). She says the departments have already made cuts and Library hour cuts would be better than a hiring freeze. She didn’t want to discuss the hiring freeze.
Oscar repeated himself to be extra clear. Return to RTM with a similar but lower budget, but a commitment to making big changes to the budget process, long term planning, and a hiring freeze.
Peter said their job is not to micromanage. He said he is older and knows more. Liz said people were not widgets.
Oscar asked if lots of examples printed out of towns and schools doing this wouldn’t change an opinion, and Liz says new info wouldn’t change her mind. She stands with John Potter.
Potter said hiring freezes are a management tool, not a budgeting tool. The Town Manager said a hiring freeze wouldn’t be trusting the Town Manager.
Isaac said it is a policy they can take to RTM.
Liz said it isn’t a smart tool. She said a hiring freeze would ignore specifics of positions, and would be an abdication of their responsibilities. “It is not what we have been asked to do.”
Pete suggested going to department heads to ask questions is in conflict with suggesting a hiring freeze.
Isaac reminded Pete that he mentioned saving money by attrition a few weeks ago and asked what he meant.
Pete says that would mean be not hiring someone. For a specific reason, not generally.
Oscar pointed out that it is not a ban on hiring. Just means reviewing each person, rather than resorting to firing people.
Liz said Oscar wants to fire people, and that a hiring freeze is firing people.
Amanda says departments and staff work hard, but it is getting late and the meeting should be wrapped up. She thought working with town staff would be the way to find efficiencies.
No more services were mentioned.
Oscar said this is not a productive way to do this – at Thursday night at 10:45 pm.
Pete says this is just a proposal that will be revisited. He thinks it is a disservice to not consider at any item at this point. He also wonders what happens if they get delayed working on the budget beyond July 1 and is told that the Town would borrow money, most likely.
The Town Manager promised to look into all of the above, including hiring freezes and implications, if the board would like.
At 10:42 they take public comment. Such as:
– tell Potter your bottom line and let him do his job. Make those decisions.
– this process is confusing. If staff not being cut, and not a hiring freeze, service cuts don’t get you any savings.
– thanks for the discussion. I know big budgets. The solution was spoken – trust department heads and ask then to make cuts, look at positions before refilling them, and look at line items to make cuts
– does a hiring freeze reduce the budget? That isn’t reducing, just not filling for a while. Cutting staff reduces the budget. Department heads should bring more reductions.
They wrap it up just shy of 11 pm.
…
Some final notes:
Liz and Oscar got into it over fees. Oscar said increasing fees to reduce taxes had them going in circles and not looking at the core problem.
Liz and Oscar debated the amount they are trying to reduce. Liz says $400k. Oscar says he heard a more complex message.
Oddly, Liz seems to be fully willing to cut staff if it can be framed as a service cut (library hours leading to layoffs), but not a staff cut.
The countdown clock doesn’t run for board members or staff, just the public. And it keeps running for the public if the board interacts with them.
