ORANGE — Declining state aid, low revenue and slowing economic growth have put the Orange Finance Committee in the tough position of finding places to cut funding ahead of the annual Town Meeting on June 18.
The final budget to be voted on for the 2019 fiscal year is expected to be around $20,217,000, a modest increase over this year’s $19,671,069, but the various boards in town have submitted their proposed budgets, and they still add up to tens of thousands more than $20,217,000.
Tuesday night, the Finance Committee met to discuss further cuts, and several ideas were put on the table:
Not giving any raises to town employees (unless previously negotiated), cutting noneducational department expenses by 5 percent across the board, cutting police expenses by 6 percent and cutting another $60,000 from the elementary schools’ budget were all discussed.
No decisions were made, and the Finance Committee will likely meet next week to discuss the budget again. However, if the changes proposed Tuesday night are accepted, only another roughly $21,000 must be trimmed from the proposed spending to bring the budget down to an affordable $20,217,000 before June 18.
“I have a lot of concerns,” said Finance Committee Chairman Robert Stack, who has already expressed this is the most difficult budget he has tried to balance since joining the committee in 2012.
One of those concerns is that the Dexter Park and Fisher Hill Elementary Schools and Ralph C. Mahar Regional School have already “in good faith” come up with their own cuts, Stack said, but more cuts might be needed.
For example, Orange’s schools — facing decreasing enrollment, increasing costs for special education and health care, and negotiated pay raises — have already proposed eliminating late buses, an administrative position, lawn-keeping services and a couple of teachers at the elementary schools, which would increase class sizes at Fisher Hill Elementary School.
However, going through the budget Tuesday night, it was difficult for the board to find places to cut besides more from the schools’ budgets, which make up around $11 million of the overall budget.
Stephanie Conrod of the Orange Elementary School Committee attended the meeting, telling the Finance Committee she does not know how cutting another $60,000 from the elementary schools and still delivering viable education is possible — especially given the increases in class sizes and reduction in teaching staff already slated to happen.
“We have shaved as much off as we can shave,” Conrod said. “We took money from reserves to level-fund (this year). We can’t cut any more. No department should have to cut any more, but we’re at that tricky space of, ‘Are we going to be a viable town?’” she added.
Conrod said “we need to do a better job of educating people,” because people tend to look at the large amount of money the schools spend and assume money can be cut, when that is not the case.
Finance Committee member George Hunt suggested schools increase fees for programs, such as sports.
“We’re looking like the bad guys because we’re cutting, but no one is coming forward saying, ‘We’re going to increase our fees,’” Hunt said.
Finance Committee member Anthony Leger said he does not want to “target the schools,” and maybe the schools should be given more leniency when it comes to cuts because of the value of education.
However, he said, some difficult decisions will have to be made.
“We’re trying to treat each department equally,” Leger said, adding that the 5 percent cuts to all noneducational departments’ expenses (besides police expenses, which are being cut 6 percent) is fair.
“We don’t really have another option,” Leger said.
The Finance Committee went line by line through the budget Tuesday, looking for even small cuts that could be made. As a result, the town’s stabilization fund was reduced to $1,000 from $5,000.
Stack said while positions may not get raises if they were not already agreed to in contracts — like the superintendent of the Highways, Parks and Cemeteries Department or airport manager — the Finance Committee is committed to the well-being of town employees, and will not slash wages.
“We’re trying to do this without cutting personnel,” Stack said. “The easiest thing we could do is cut wages… but that affects people.”