Fed $ means no Prop 2 1/2 override this year

April 24, 2009
By proberts

As the Belmont Citizen Herald is reporting, an influx of Federal stimulus dollars targeted at education will allow the town to put off asking voters to approve a Proposition 2 1/2 override to fix its budget deficit. An estimated $1.3m in stimulus money will help stave off cuts to staffing and materials on the school side and, coupled with some savings from attrition, let the town squeak by for one more year without needing to raise property taxes. Of course, because this is a structural deficit, Belmont is likely to face a similar or even larger deficit next year, barring a miraculous recovery in the second half of 2009, as tax revenues continue to decline.

BloggingBelmont says "thanks, Barack!"

BloggingBelmont says "thanks, Barack!"

Still, the decision for hold off on the override vote saves town voters from a ballot in June asking for approval of property tax increases for the budget as well as construction of the new Wellington Elementary — a scenario that few in town thought boded well for either effort.

Details should be emerging in the weeks ahead on exactly where cuts will come from on both the School and Town side of the ledger, but as a strong supporter of the effort to build a new Wellington, a June vote focused on that issue and no other is very appealing.  I’m sure I’m not alone in the desire to step back and say “Thanks, Barack!” ;-)

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  • bloggingbelmont
    Hey all. I was out of town and not at the WC meeting where this was discussed (in my new capacity as a School Committee member). Speaking as Paul the blogger here, and not Paul the School Committee member (let alone "The School Committee" itself), I think the reason we don't know is that the fine details of what will be restored are still "to be determined" and the SC will be working to nail that down in the weeks ahead. My understanding from that meeting was that the initial, back of the envelope, estimate given was that around half the stimulus money will be used to restore most of the professional positions. The other half will be put towards long-term investments like textbooks, equipment and classroom supplies. Again, there will likely be more changes before this is all said and done as the town and SC work to back out as many of the tiered cuts as possible.
  • Kimberly becker
    I don't think they know exactly what is being put back in yet- I do know that the teachers and guidance counselors will be saved. We will be paying for all after school programs that our kids participate in- not the full cost- but some portion of it.
    I agree that it is sad that we once fought for better pay and a more significant bump in funding each year, and now we are happy to only being cut a small amount. The climate in the town is not friendly to increased funding of school though. I believe that we are very lucky that the Warrant Committee saw fit to not cut money to the schools in lieu of the stimulus package funds.
  • HMD
    Re cuts: If you go to the Belmont schools website, there is a pull down menu for the school committee. They list public documents. I found this worksheet that list the tiers to be cut : http://www.belmont.k12.ma.us/uploads/docs/publications/budget2010/SCAvailableRevenueWorksheet_3-23-09.pdf (sorry, I don't know how to put it in as a link). This dates from 3/17, I don't know if things have been moved around.
  • JAM
    I feel like over the years our expectations have changed so much - now people are feeling relief that the cuts will be "only" so much, whereas a few years ago people we up in arms about things that will surely be cut this year. I know times are bad all over, but for a town of Belmont's caliber to be losing all the things the schools are losing is really awful. I too, don't have a good sense of what the town is cutting, but I'm sure there are things there that we don't want to see happen either
  • ritabutz
    I watched the most recent School Committee and Warrant Committee meetings online, but I can't figure out from them what has been put back into the School budget. Can anyone tell me where I can view documents with the list of tiers from the School Committee? In particular, I am interested in knowing if there will be libraries in the elementary schools next year. Thank you for your reporting!
  • Kimberly becker
    I was at the Warrant Committee meeting last Wednesday, and with the exception of the lack of transparency on the Town side (Tom Younger seems to be unwilling to give a straight answer when asked for a tiered cut list), I believe that this was the most unified, thoughtfull effort from the School Committee, Warrant COmmittee and Selectmen that I have ever seen! Thankfully, the stimulus money has saved our butts this year, as free cash has done in the past. The school committee talked a lot about changing the structural way they do business for the future, recognizing that the next 10 yrs will be tough and we can't do things the way we have been any more.
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