2010 budget-State aid reductions

This Standard Times editorial today endorses the position taken by the state House Ways and Means chair, Representative Murphy. Rep. Murphy does not want to raise any taxes to balance the state 2010 budget. As a result, state spending must be reduced. The proposed cuts have been forwarded to the towns for planning purposes. You can find the local aid contribution estimates at this link.
Chapter 70 school aid will be level funded so the amount will be the same as 2009, Other areas will be cut and the net result is over $1.2 million dollars less from the state to the town. Our budget estimates assumed level funded state aid. Actually, the assumption was that the aid would match what was provided after the governor's mid-year cuts.
Unrestricted aid will be cut around $1 million and the police career incentive funds will be cut $190K. The police career incentive, called Quinn bill funds, provide added pay for police officers who earn college degrees. I don't have information ...

... right now about how or if the town must pay the difference if the Quinn bill funds are not provided.
As a practical matter, the town administrators, Select Board, and Finance Committee are going to have to revisit the budget which was nearing completion and probably make additional cuts. As always, the devil is in the details. Before applying funds to capital needs, the town budget has nearly $1 million extra. The current plan was to apply that surplus to capital needs of the town for needed equipment and maintenance of schools, roads, and town buildings. Many of these capital needs have been long delayed and are nearing the stage where they cannot be postponed, even for one year. So the choice will be to delay these capital items once again or further reduce town spending. Areas which were considered for reductions this year and then restored are library funding (partially restored), school crossing guards, and Natural Resources. Whether these departments must now be reduced to balance the budget will have to be reconsidered.