SHREWSBURY, Massachusetts – Members of the Board of Selectmen, Finance Committee, and School Committee met yesterday with the town manager Dan Morgado, to go over their preliminary budget figures, as the town moves towards finalizing it’s budget recommendations for Town Meeting approval.

Overall the preliminary figures look a bit better than one might have expected, given the overall economic conditions.  The town manager has proposed a balanced budget, based on his preliminary estimates on state aid from Beacon Hill, but this came at the cost of stripping about $4,000,000 from the initial requests made by each department on the municipal and educational side.

As is often the case, it is expected that these figures are conservative and will change over time.   The budget placed at the end the priorities for supplemental funding, should additional monies become available.   Among this group, is the restoring of four firefighter positions, additional police officers, and several municipal projects, in addition to just over $2.5 million dollars to provide essential level service funding to the school department, as opposed to the $700K reduction proposed in the initial town manager figures.

Selectman Ben Tartaglia expressed again his long standing interest in finding a way to reduce or eliminate $500,000 in annual school bus fees, citing the impact that these fees have on families who are having a hard time paying them.   His suggestion, which surprisingly seemed to be met with a somewhat surprising amount of disdain by other members of the Board of Selectmen, (Selectmen Jim Kane implied that it was a “disingenuous” proposal, floated because it made for a good “sound bite,” was that we should do more to pull together and split these costs up among all residents, as we do with our police and fire services.

This is something that has been discussed before, and would be a huge help to Shrewsbury families who are being hit by fee after fee.   Bus fees aren’t the only, or even the most onerous, of these assessments.  Take for example, a family with three students, who pay for bussing, and participate in school sports and clubs. who live in a home valued at $350,000.   This year, they would be paying $500 for school buses, plus $875 in athletic fees, plus $150 in activity fees, just for basic participation in the programs. This does not count a variety of other costs associated with these different programs, such as the hundreds of dollars in admission fees to games, or bus transportation to tournaments.    This hypothetical family, would have property taxes of about  $3,500, but be paying ancillary fees of over $1,500 in additional school costs.  If one of the students wished to participate by playing a musical instrument, that could easily add another $1000 in annual cost, to pay for music lessons.

Mr. Taraglia’s point, I believe,  was that any time you have the cost of programming or services born solely by the few using that service, it presents a great expense that, in his opinion, would best be spread out among all residents, as is done with other municipal services.   Selectman Moe DePalo pointed out that since the bus fees, for example, only pay for 25% of the total school bus program, that the town’s taxpayers are, in fact, joining together to pay for 75% of the program.  Members of the finance committee accurately pointed out that the residents who are the least able to pay fees, those on free and reduced lunch programs, are exempted from the bulk of these fees.  Other’s accurately pointed out that if another $500,000 were available, the first priority would not necessarily be to reduce these fees, but rather to use it for other needed programming.

This does beg the question as to what such a formula for properly funding municipal and educational programs would look like.  It would likely take the form of an override of Prop. 2,5, to address some of the continual structural deficits that exist in Shrewsbury.  As we all know, despite the excellent town services, and a school district which has now been nationally ranked in the top 3% of over 9000 districts nationally, we have long since been seriously underfunded in many areas.  It could be estimated that the current $4 million dollar gap which exists between the available funding, and the needs of the different departments, might drop by half or more as accurate figures from a variety of sources begin to take shape.   This would leave $2 Million left to make up.    For an additional $1 Million, we could likely eliminate bus and athletic fees for the parents of school children, as an incentive to favor the program, much as the addition of a fire station in the south side of Shrewsbury helped get passage for the main fire station in town center.

Raising this $3 million in revenue, could come from a structural override of that amount, which would be split up among the approximately 9,000 homes in Shrewsbury.   This would translate in a very rough figure of about $300.    For the parent with children in school, this would be a huge win.  After all, that $1,500 in current school bus and athletic fees, would be replaced by a tax deductible increase of $300 in their property taxes.    To the person without children in school, they would be receiving added police and fire protection, see other municipal projects brought to fruition, and potentially see a jump in property values, as people try to move into Shrewsbury,

Selectmen have indicated that an override would not be on the ballot this year, but there is little doubt that the subject will eventually come up again, and so I think it’s helpful to at least chew on that idea just a little bit and picture what the incentives might have to be to garner support from the widely disparate demographic groups that make up this great community.