Aid cuts may put budgets on hold

Scheduled votes are now in doubt

By Eun Lee Koh, Globe Staff Correspondent, 3/9/2003

INCOLN -- Freshly printed absentee ballots and budget books sit in the Lincoln town clerk's office awaiting an uncertain fate.

Financial assumptions that had been relatively certain just weeks ago when the materials went to press, in preparation for the upcoming Town Meeting and election, have been placed in doubt by Governor Mitt Romney's recent budget proposal giving Lincoln and other suburban towns less state aid than expected.

Lincoln officials normally would be mailing the ballots and budget books to residents this week, but instead they are wrestling with several unknowns because the town expects to get $363,000 less than projected in state aid in the next fiscal year. The uncertainty threatens to delay both Town Meeting and the annual election scheduled for the end of this month, when Lincoln residents are expected vote on the town's budget for next year and on a Proposition 2 1/2 override.

Similarly, in Sudbury, with which Lincoln shares a high school, town officials are now expecting $300,000 to $400,000 less in education aid than they had projected.

School and municipal officials from both communities met Tuesday night to consider the impact Romney's announcement could have on Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and on elementary and middle schools in each town. Both communities had prepared budgets for the next fiscal year projecting a 10 percent declines in state aid. Romney's proposal indicates that the actual cuts could be as high as 15 to 17 percent, according to administrators in each town.

''Before the governor's announcement, there was broad support for the budgets being presented to Town Meeting,'' said Timothy S. Higgins, Lincoln's town administrator. ''Now those plans are turned on their ears. We're still attempting to digest the numbers. Until we have a better understanding of what the impact is, everything hangs in the balance.''

Romney's proposal to revamp the state's school-financing formula for fiscal year 2004, which begins July 1, and shift millions of dollars from wealthier school districts to poorer ones, would affect many communities in the predominantly affluent western suburbs.

Although the state budget will probably go through several incarnations in the state Legislature before becoming law, Romney's recent proposal has left Lincoln and Sudbury scrambling.

Officials in both towns have proposed spreading the proposed reductions throughout their communities -- scaling back all town services rather than having the schools absorb the brunt.

Lincoln's Town Meeting, at which voters establish the operating budget for the next fiscal year, is scheduled for March 29. Residents this year will be asked to vote on a $350,000 Proposition 2 1/2 override on March 31, when they go to the polls.

Town officials are requesting the override to make up for revenue shortfalls in next year's budget. If approved, the override would allow the town to raise the property tax levy beyond the cap set by state law.

Now, Lincoln officials fear that the override request may not be enough to cover town and school operating costs. The town must decide whether to postpone Town Meeting or elections within the next week, because doing so requires permission from the Legislature.

Sudbury's Town Meeting, scheduled for April 1, will proceed as planned, said Sudbury Town Manager Maureen Valente, but it is possible that the Finance Committee will ask voters to delay voting on next year's budget until town officials get a better sense of the actual reduction in aid. Valente said the Board of Selectmen could schedule a special Town Meeting later in the spring to deal specifically with the town's operating budget for next year.

Officials in each community also are worried about how Lincoln and Sudbury will fare in future years as state officials continue toying with the local aid formulas.

John Ritchie, superintendent and principal of the Lincoln-Sudbury regional school district, said a general reduction in state aid could mean curtailing of school programs, cutting new supplies, reducing administrative support staff, and possibly laying off teachers. Ritchie said although the high school population has grown annually over the last few years, the budget has had to be pared.

''What we're losing, in the face of high expectations from a community, coupled with high enrollment, is devastating,'' Ritchie said. ''It's a downward trend, and that is very unsettling.''

The Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee, and town counsel were expected to meet in an emergency session Friday morning to further discuss the implications of Romney's proposal. Selectmen plan to discuss whether the town should postpone Town Meeting and the election at their meeting at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night in the Town Offices.

Sara Mattes, chairwoman of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen, said it was still unclear what the selectmen would decide. But she said it was probable that residents across the western suburbs will be asked to vote on increasing their local property taxes to make up for declining state aid.

''The notion that there are no new taxes is disingenuous,'' Mattes said. ''In order to preserve education, we will have to ask taxpayers if they want to raise taxes at the local level. This is just trickle-down taxation.''

Eun Lee Koh can be reached at ekoh@globe.com or 508-820-4238.

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