ATHOL – Members of the Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee met remotely with the Selectboard to discuss steps needed to hammer down a budget for the next fiscal year, which is supposed to begin July 1. Thanks to the ongoing pandemic, that appears highly unlike to happen.
Town Manager Shaun Suhoski noted Tuesday, April 7, was, as required by the Town Charter, the date by which the Selectboard and Finanance Committee were supposed to receive the town manager’s budget recommendations for fiscal 2021.
“It comes as no surprise to the people directly involved in this meeting,” said Suhoski, “and probably not a surprise to those watching at home, there’s a great deal of uncertainty, not just with the town budget but at the state level, and in trying to interpret where the federal leadership is headed with respect to the stimulus package.
“Examples of the uncertainty are delayed town elections — and this isn’t unique to Athol, it’s common throughout the commonwealth — potentially rescheduled annual (town) meetings, declining revenue projections at the state and local level, and an unprecedented surge in unemployment claims.”
Suhoski noted that state lawmakers have taken steps to allow flexibility in municipal financial processes, including property and personal property tax due dates and the potential for waiving interest and fees on what would have been considered late payments.
He added that the state is allowing for the use of one-twelfth budgets for Fiscal 2021.
“That essentially would be a minimum of a one-twelfth of the current year appropriation that would be able to, through the Selectboard, vote to have continuity of government in July and beyond, if we need to do that.”
“There’s no way that we can put a budget in place that has any validity until we get some clarity on these various things,” said Finance Committee Chair Ken Duffy. “It looks to me like the path of the one-twelfth budget is probably the way we need to go and plan on for at least the first three months (of the fiscal year). We’re lucky because we have that Town Meeting in October that we have every year, the second Town Meeting. So, my thought was, unless we get much more clarity on where we stand from various areas that we go with the one-twelfth budget and then finalize it at the October Town Meeting – if we have to. I just don’t think we can make any commitments to any area of the budget, whether it’s in education or the municipal side, until we get that clarity. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen within the next couple of months, at least.”
“I think at this point,” said board Chair Rebecca Bialecki, “that this is yet another area where the whole world is kind of in an unknown place. So, all we can do is sort of delay and hope that as we get more information we can move forward with a little more clarity.”