BURRILLVILLE – A fiscal plan approved by the Burrillville Town Council last week will see spending increase by roughly $1 million over last year’s total, with councilors tightening line items and dipping into reserves to increase funding for the school department.
The budget as adopted will come with a roughly 4 to 5 percent increase for the average taxpayer. Town Manager Michael Wood said the roughly $56 million plan will amount to a $220 increase on the tax bill for the average home, valued at $441,985.
Wood’s budget memo notes that the tax rate actually decreased because real estate values were up substantially during the town’s recent revaluation. The approved budget resolution notes a tax rate of 11.90 per thousand for the coming fiscal year, down from 14.98 last year.
“We had a lot of work that went into the formation of it and the various types of options,” Wood said of the fiscal plan.
Wood’s original budget recommendation included an increase of $998,066 for schools, still falling more than half a million short of a $38,557,268 allocation request that school officials said would only cover the bare minimum in district expenses this year.
“We have tried to put a budget together that will keep services that are absolutely necessary for our students,” said Supt. Michael Sollitto at the council meeting on Wednesday, June 11. “There’s no fluff and no frills in our budget.”
On Wednesday, Councilor Dennis Anderson led the way as the board looked to fill some of the gap in the request, noting that the hiring of two administrative aides for the town can be delayed until later in the year to help make up the shortfall. Anderson also suggested redirecting $175,000 from the school surplus to help with operations and noted that $225,000 of the town’s restricted funds can be used to finance utilities, transportation and out of district tuitions.
The Burrillville School District’s anticipated state aid also increased by $48,000 according to the latest projections, making up some of the loss from what have been ongoing state funding decreases due to declining enrollment and other factors.
“Through this challenging time we’re in, we all need to remember that we’re all wearing the same color uniform,” said Anderson, adding that he ran through some 40 scenarios in effort to make the numbers work. “I found a combination that I dislike the least.”
Anderson’s proposed changes resulted in access to some $475,000 more for school expenses.
“It’s up to the school to find the rest of the way there,” he said. “If you can’t make everybody happy, I just want to make everyone equally unhappy.”
The decision came despite concerns about reliance on the restricted account to plug budget holes, a fund looked at in measuring a community’s financial health. According to the plan laid out last week, school officials will only be able to access those restricted funds if the costs in each line item exceed the regular allocation.
“It really shouldn’t be a place we do continued expenses,” said Anderson. “We’ve got to be very sensitive not to use that.”
“It is an unsustainable path,” agreed Council President Don Fox. “Our restricted fund balance is as low as I’ve ever seen it in ten years on this council.”
Wood also expressed reservations.
“We can’t budget like this continuously,” said Wood. “Obviously we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to get everybody where they need to be with their budgets, but things are stabilizing now in the country, and there’s no Covid stuff out there, there’s no craziness, so hopefully we can get back to sensible budgeting.”
The town manager noted that more than $300,000, meanwhile, has been spent in litigation over the town’s turf field project.
“It’s taking money from the schools, it’s taking money from the municipality,” said Wood. “Of course, that has an impact on all of these decisions. Throwing taxpayer money away on a stupid lawsuit is ridiculous.”
Fox questioned one factor affecting the school budget, an increase in home schooling requests, noting that 125 Burrillville kids are now on the list, and that funding for those students is lost to the district.
“I think for some of us at this table, this was a surprising number to see,” said Fox. “That’s staggering.”
Sollitto said that this year, many parents pulled children out of school mid-year due to truancy issues.
“Sometimes they come back the following year,” he said.
Councilor David Houle questioned what can be done in future years to stabilize the school budget, pointing to the need for shared services and the possible elimination of a Burrillville school.
“That would be a huge savings on the school budget,” Houle said. “It’s the only way we can not do this anymore.”
Councilor Justin Batalon pointed out that in a tight budget year, the board was left with few choices.
“We can’t just say ‘no, we can’t give the school any more money,'” Batalon said. “It wouldn’t be responsible.”
