Within the past two weeks, both the School District and the Town have presented preliminary budgets for FY25. While significant work by staff has gone into preparing these preliminary budgets, the documents will undergo review and fine-tuning between now and early March in preparation for final proposals that will go before the voters at the Annual Town Meeting come late April.
The Town’s operating budget is facing new pressures with the return of higher inflation these last couple of years. Fortunately, we are seeing a calmer inflationary climate but after years of many expense accounts being level funded, we are seeing a need for upward adjustments in what will likely be a “correction” year as we catch up. New union contract agreements provided pay adjustments as well and add to this upward pressure as all labor markets have become more competitive.
Growth in the use of the harbor, which has been beneficial to our local merchants, has strained the current staff. As part of the proposed FY25 budget, funds are provided to hire a new Deputy Harbormaster to ensure safety on the water and to prevent exhausting current staff. Fees from the various harbor services which are growing can cover the additional salary.
The proposed budget also proposes boosting a couple of part-time positions to full-time, again in response to higher workloads and resident demands. This applies to our Communications Coordinator and “web master.” It also applies to our clerks for the Zoning Board and the Planning Board, merging these hours into one full-time position along with the assistant to the Building Inspector. This will provide greater continuity of service amongst these entities given that an applicant is often dealing with all three as well as better daily customer service related to land management and permitting.
The budget also includes proposals for more spending on infrastructure. For the past 10 years the Town has relied almost entirely on annual cash appropriations to pay for needed capital projects and equipment. This has served us well as we retire old debt while making progress on a backlog of needs without incurring borrowing costs. We face larger expenses then we can reasonably raise funds annually going forward thus for the first time in many years new Town bonds (verses School bonds) are being proposed. The request is for $9.25 million to pay for significant upgrades to the sewer treatment plant, including reconfiguring the processing of effluent that no longer relies on the daily use of drinking water, new “smart” meetings for all water connections that provide accurate, real-time use of drinking water (and thus real-time leak detection), and pilot testing and design work for the new filtration systems that will be needed to remove PFAS from our drinking water both at the Lincoln Street Well and at
Gravely Pond. Higher utility charges can help pay for this bond.
For the School District, the School Committee reviewed a tentative budget for FY25 at their public hearing on Wednesday, December 13th. This initial budget anticipates level services and requires increased appropriations of 3.45%. Because of recent enrollment patterns that have shifted the proportion of students towards Essex, under this proposal Essex would see a 5.31% assessment increase and Manchester a 2.35% increase. While these preliminary numbers are likely to come down a bit the ask would require Essex to approve a Proposition 2½ override. An override attempt failed last year in Essex and the District put forth a new budget that reduced programming and drew more heavily on reserves. This revised budget was approved by both communities the second time around. Had the second proposal failed, a third attempt would have taken place at a joint Town Meeting of both towns.
Whatever budget gets approved at a joint town meeting must be accepted by both towns regardless of whether an override is approved or not (which can pose big challenges for the non-school budgets.)
Reconciling the competing interests surrounding the School District budget presents a significant challenge. It is likely the outcome will result in a lower than typical increased allocation from Manchester which means that even with higher-than-normal increases for non-school services, the FY25 budget for Manchester should come within the limitations of Proposition 2½ with the exception of the new bonds which, if voters approve, would be excluded from the levy limit.
Starting in the New Year, the Finance Committee will be meeting weekly to discuss the proposals for FY25. These meetings are open to the public and meeting details are posted on the Town’s website.
