The latest MOB file from Mr. Lynam of the Finance Committee can be found at this link. This file reflects the changes made at Town Meeting. Of note are the items which were not funded due to lack of revenue. Among them are police cars, road maintenance and school technology which total more than $450,000. Also not included is any pay increase for town employees.
The future year projections continue to show deficits and the projections are probably optimistic in that they have state aid continuing at current levels which seems unlikely and no increase for town employee wages in future years. Another area of concern is ...
...that the state target for Dartmouth's reimbursement under Chapter 70 aid is 17.5%. The reimbursement percentage is being slowly decreased until we reach that level.
The town has made some progress toward fiscal health but there are still difficult choices ahead. I hope that we can adequately plan to met these challenges. Over the past few years, the taxpayers have added over $4 million dollars to the town's budget if you include fees and override tax increases. Town employees are going to take wage freezes or have reduced numbers. We need to move aggressively to reduce costs through increased use of technology, regional agreements, consolidation of departments and outsourcing to continue to deliver services.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Latest financial file from Finance Committee
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17 comments:
All a matter of priorities, isn't it?
Some of it is a matter of mandates. And, my 24 year old has priorities that are waaaay different than mine.
So, to answer your question anon 5:17, No.
Ohhhh, stop worrying. There is plenty of money to be found in that schedule A. Those items are all padded. I know this because our two newly elected select board members along with the infinitely wise Ms Dias said so.
I am not worried at all. There will be no override request for fy11. Just ask the new expert on all things concerning Dartmouth finances, Sara M-M.
Bill
June 8, 2009 meeting. Just prior to the end of your meeting, the select board called for a list of police candidates from the civil service promotional list for captain, lieutenant, and sergeants, but no reason was given. Do you wish to respond?? Are the selectman considering promotions to curtail the overtime? What happened to transparency?
To "long time resident": I was responding to Bill's statement that there were no funds for police cars, technology for the schools, and road repairs.
Of the above, technology for the education of our children seems to be on the back burner in one way or another, and will get funded at some point, but look how long the struggle for textbooks and technology has been going on already. Remember the override in 2007? It all came out then how woefully inadequate our educational materials really are/were, and then at least K-5 got their reading series.
We can't give our kids what they need but we have no problem funding the paralegal to full salary,for now, anyway.
Where's your priority there? Kids, the safety of Dartmouth residents in total, cars that aren't threatened to be swallowed up by a pothole at Dartmouth and Rogers?
Can we sue the town for the costly repairs to our cars? Let's check with the Select Board on that possibility.
Many of the technology needs that were subject of the 2007 override have been addressed from within the school budget. See this post Some others have been addressed as funds were available as the comment noted. Others will be addressed if funds are available. The question of priorities applies to the School Committee as well. If you wish to have a greater priority on textbooks and technology, make that known to them. Taxpayers can't go to Town Meeting and move money around their budget, so it must be addressed at the School Committee meetings.
This idea that somehow our schools are woefully inadequate is nonsense. I lay the blame for that idea on the school department themselves. I think that is the message they pushed to attempt to pass overrides. Dartmouth went from having good schools to supposedly having poor schools in a two or three years, what changed? The only difference I can see is the way the school department characterized themselves. I am not saying there cannot be improvement. I am saying our schools are doing a good job and the thing that changed was how the administration and School Committee talked about them. I think that this kind of talk ends up being self fulfilling, if everyone talks about how woefully inadequate the schools are, we will have woefully inadequate schools.
I am sure comments will now say that it is all my fault and I don't like the schools or children and if I knew the problems, etc., etc., and every other way you can twist up what I just said. My point is if you expect excellence and praise the accomplishments of our students, faculty and staff, the results are likely to improve.
Ultimately the town budget is a zero sum game. What is spent here is not available to be spent elsewhere. Some claim that the Finance Committee and Select Board did not place enough priority on the Youth Advocate position. Not surprisingly, I disagree. The funding for that position was the sole remaining item that was ranked as priority 4. Everything else had been cut out of the budget in that category in prior years or this year. So it clearly was the highest priority of those items. But it is not as high a priority as police cars or school materials in my opinion,the Town Meeting disagreed and funded it. That is fine and why they get to vote on the budget but don't come back now and say we should have funded police cars or textbooks. It is an either/or proposition.
9:09...why continue to throw personal attacks. Just for the record, I voted Gilbert and Watson. My point is why continue to throw verbal jabs at our leadership. It should be knoiwn that anonymous 9:09 decided to begin the name calling on this post. What a surprise. An anonymous poster throwing jabs at people who actually had the guts to run for office.
Disagree with you Bill, heavens no or the "mind your manners" police will come and start with the personal attacks on your fellow Select Board members. No thanks!
Bill Trimble speaks the truth.
Truth speaks for itself, it requires no support. See if you can find the truth.
As it relates to town prop 2 ½ overrides, how many times have the voters favored an override?
1) Financing for the Dartmouth high school facility passed.
2) Additional funding for libraries, town hall operations passed.
3) Financing for six additional entry level police officers passed.
All school related articles, other then the above mentioned, have failed. Can you see the truth? Read Bill Trimble' comment and you shall read the truth. The truth stands before you. Town voters have lost confidence in the school department leadership, and the school committee.
Truth can not be denied, it speaks for itself, until the school committee finds a new superintendent and business manager, it shall be business as usual. Can you find the truth?
Bill advocates for adequacy, That kind of thinking discourages excellence and innovation, both in schools and in the future.
It is correct that anon 9:09 demonstrated poor manners in their post. They were at least addressing the issues though. If you notice, I let the debate develop without intervention even when people were strongly disagreeing with Trimble about the virtues of South Carolina. You are free to disagree with Trimble about the school system or any other issue. What I despise is the use of ridicule and personal attacks not related to issues for political purposes. Anon 9:09 has in my opinion gone beyond the gray area and crossed the line with his/her comments and should mind their manners so that constructive debate can be had.
I think that there is a difference between adequate resources and adequate outcomes. There is not necessarily a constraint on excellence or innovation imposed by resources. Some charter schools have shown that excellence and innovation can be achieved with the same resources as those provided to public schools. How resources are applied is the decision of the school administration and the School Committee. If schools have adequate resources and achieve less than adequate results, the first response is to blame a lack of resources. I don't think that is the case.
I'd look at the teachers.
If there are adequate resources, then, other than parental motivation, encouragement, praise, instruction (reading to the child at an early age; exposing the child to new and diverse experiences, cultures; helping with homework; etc.), which play an important part in the early development of the child, not to mention the continuation of attention to the child's education throughout his or her school years, then I would question what is hampering the child in the classroom.
Sorry, but the blame does not lie solely with the availability of resources. You have to have a good teacher to begin with, and there are a lot of not-so-good, ineffective teachers out there in the school systems across the country.
And, Dartmouth is not immune to them, either, I'm sure, whether we like to admit that or not.
Just there to put in their time.
BILL:
How much of a contribution to the decline in Dartmouth schools would you venture to guess stems from the "MCAS process?"
Given your proficiency in so many topics and issues facing towns, you are undoubtably aware this "MCAS process" requires constant re-investment into curriculums, texts, technology, faculty training, etc.
MNSS especially given the comparatively low expenditures in Dartmouth on education do not in any way assure Dartmouth's education system of even standing still from a results standpoint.
Your thoughts?
The foundation budget set by the state is an amount that can provide adequate resources. Many districts operate on MNSS. That is the intent of the ed reform law. Once again a comment wants to equate spending and results. The two do not have a casual relationship. Less spending does not necessarily lead to poorer results and more spending does not necessarily lead to better results. That is my point.
What is your point about the MCAS process? You say it requires constant re-investment into curriculums, texts, technology, faculty training, etc. Has that been done? Why not? Every school district in the Commonwealth has the same requirement don't they?
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