Meetings Ahead
Thursday, Jan. 16
- Animal Welfare Committee, 12 noon, Council on Aging
- Community Housing Council, 3 p.m., Town Hall
- Harbor Committee, 5 p.m., Town Hall
- Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Board of Trustees, 6 p.m., Town Hall
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.
Monday, Jan. 20
- Town Hall closed, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Tuesday, Jan. 21
- Recreation Commission, 5:30 p.m., Veterans Memorial Community Center
- Select Board, 5:30 p.m., Town Hall
Wednesday, Jan. 22
- Harbor Committee, 5 p.m., Town Hall
- Select Board, 5:30 p.m., Town Hall
Conversation Starters
Budget Time: Trash Is Big-Ticket Item
Provincetown’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year is $341,000 in the red.
While it’s still early in the budget process, Assistant Town Manager David Gardner warned the select board and new Town Manager Robin Craver that they will have tough decisions to make.
The town’s operating budget grew by 5.6 percent, to $31,291,000, Gardner told the select board Tuesday. This exceeds the 2.5-percent growth rate allowed under Proposition 2 1/2, a state law designed to prevent large tax increases without voter approval.
“This has been a challenging year from a budgeting standpoint,” Gardner said on Tuesday.
The main budget busters are a 9-percent increase in debt service payments. Employee benefits, retirement, health insurance, and step salary increases for contracted employees are also up and that doesn’t even count union employees. Collective bargaining with three major unions is not settled, so “we have no idea what impact that will have on your budget yet,” Gardner said.
The town is obligated to pay a $250,000 residential placement for a Provincetown Schools student who must attend a special needs school.
Solid waste and recycling costs skyrocketed by $333,000.
Trash costs increased from $59/ton to $110/ton and recycling went from $35/ton to $110/ton.
“So that’s a major hit,” Gardner said.
Other smaller increases include a $34,000 bump in public safety costs needed to handle the Provincetown 400 celebration. And due to added staffing at the pier, the harbormaster budget went up $106,000.
The police department is proposing to hire two new patrol officers, which would cost $126,000 (benefits not included). This is related to security at the Provincetown Municipal Airport. Arthur “Butch” Lisenby, the airport manager, said currently there are not enough officers doing detail security at the airport.
“We’ll certainly have to make a case to you tomorrow night when the chief is here that this is an appropriate expense,” Gardner told the select board.
The fire chief wants to hire an EMS coordinator for $80,000. “The position is needed to comply with state rules,” Gardner said.
At the same time, some new revenue is coming.
Eversource is in the process of constructing a battery for backup power during electrical outages. The company will pay $45,000 a year to lease the town’s land. Private trash hauler fee hikes added about $35,000 and new parking spaces at the West End rotary will add about $100,000. Gardner expects marijuana tax revenue to bring in $53,000.
Gardner told the select board that his staff cut $1,060,000 from the deficit “to what we hope is a more manageable figure.”
Now it’s time for the select board to decide how much more to cut.
Gardner recommended that the select board cover the deficit by transferring money from free cash and the tourism fund, though “that will delay some of the capital improvement projects,” he said.
“We considered several options and none of them are good,” he said. “None of them are easy. If they were, we would have made them for you.”
Other options include going to town meeting to ask for an override to pay for one of the big items, such as the $333,000 for trash disposal and recycling.
“But that’s an unavoidable expense and so failure at town meeting would cause a budget crisis at that point,” he said.
Gardner recommended taking $140,000 from the tourism fund. And as the select board has done in the last two years, it could reduce the amount placed in the retirement benefit fund, so-called OPEB.
The select board will meet with department heads for the next week to try to cut the budget and then will vote when the review is over.
To avoid continuing annual budget jumps Gardner had a few long-term ideas. The town could charge a fee for curbside trash pickup, which is now covered by taxes. A new fee could bring in $615,000.
But the negative side of doing that this year is “no conversation about a new disposal fee,” Gardner said. “And obviously there would be negative public reaction instituting something like that on short notice.”
The Land Bank surcharge ends this year, Gardner said. This 3-percent charge on the property tax bill has been used to buy open space. In future, Provincetown could petition the state legislature to dedicate the funds to retirement benefits or the OPEB fund.
“I’m sorry we’re in this position but we keep chugging along and spending money,” said Bobby Anthony of the select board. —K.C. Myers
