Selectmen will ask for $320,000
override
School district stands to receive about $260,000
By Scott W. Helman, Globe Staff Correspondent, 2/12/2002
After paring next year's town budget proposals down below levels
that would
maintain current services, the Board of Selectmen last night came to
a
consensus on an override amount of roughly $320,000 to put before
voters this
spring.
Nearly $260,000 of that would go to the Lincoln School District,
which has been
operating on a bare-bones budget since a fiscal crisis emerged last
summer.
Miscalculations by the central office led to a deficit of more than
$1 million over the
last two fiscal years.
But that would mean the schools are asking for less than was
anticipated.
When the Lincoln School Committee successfully persuaded voters last
fall to
approve a $450,000 bailout package, members were estimating that the
district
would need an additional $300,000 for fiscal year 2003.
Still, as members of the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee
noted last
night, the school district's drop down to $260,000 did not come
without pain.
''There's a lot of blood on the floor, though,'' said Al Schmertzler,
a member of the
Lincoln Finance Committee. ''I think we have to make clear that this
is not [at] level
service.''
The amount of the Proposition 21/2 override, which allows
communities to exceed
the annual property tax cap mandated by state law, won't be etched
in stone until
Friday when the selectmen sign the warrant for the annual Town
Meeting in March.
The town, not including the schools or the library, is asking for a
$60,000 override,
but Selectwoman Penny Billings said she wanted to see the number
reduced to
$50,000.
Town Administrator Timothy Higgins was to meet today with the Water
Department to look at its budget.
Last night, Higgins also highlighted other areas where the town
could cut more,
including a line item that covers anticipated consultants' fees.
That the town's portion of the proposed budget reflects only a 3.68
percent
increase over last year means that all the departments got the
message this year that
times were tough, Higgins said. ''I think it reflects the commitment
the department
heads made to bring in a very lean budget,'' he said.
The $320,000 amount also assumes that the Sudbury Board of Selectmen
will
approve an override high enough that Lincoln won't need to
appropriate more
money for Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. The Sudbury
selectmen were
expected to decide on amount at their meeting last night.
Heeding a warning from state legislators that next year's local aid
allocations are
likely to drop below this year's levels, Lincoln officials reduced
their aid estimates
by 5 percent, or $140,000.
''It's that unrealistic?'' Billings asked.
''Yes,'' Finance Committee chairwoman Mary Cancian responded
emphatically.
Lincoln officials also got bad financial news last night about Bemis
Hall, the historic
lecture hall on Bedford Road that needs to be brought up to fire
code and made
accessible for the disabled.
The town had hoped to use money from the Community Preservation Act,
which
voters will decide on this spring, to pay for the renovation work.
But the town has been advised that the renovation work doesn't meet
the criteria
for historic preservation under the act.
The selectmen also expressed disappointment that the League of Women
Voters
decided this year not to allow a budget presentation by the Finance
Committee at
its forum for town election candidates in March.
In the past, they said, the event has given voters a chance to learn
about the
numbers before Town Meeting.
Scott W. Helman can be reached by e-mail at shelman@globe.com or by
phone
at 508-820-4230.
This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 2/12/2002.
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