Town Manager Peter Fohlin presents his last Williamstown budget on Wednesday night.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town is projecting a 2.5 percent increase in spending in fiscal 2016, avoiding the possibility of a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote.

 

Town Manager Peter Fohlin presented the final budget of his career to the Finance Committee on Wednesday evening.

 

Despite a significant jump in the cost of health insurance for town employees, the town is positioned to keep taxes below the level that would trigger a townwide vote.

 

The budget was built based on "a 2.5 percent increase in local real estate taxes and pending state aid and local receipts," Fohlin told the Fin Comm.

 

"I say pending because, without a doubt, local receipts will come in higher by the end of the year. State aid may or may not come in higher. We used a very conservative estimate for state aid."

 

Fohlin budgeted for no increase in state aid to local municipalities and forecast net increases of $12,000 and $5,000 in the hotel-motel and meals taxes, respectively.

 

"We're looking at increases in revenue from hotel/motel and meals taxes not because we're raising the rate but because the economy is pretty healthy in Williamstown right now," he said. "We cannot be overly aggressive in these protections because the state won't allow it. It won't approve our tax rate if receipt estimates are too ambitious."

 

When Fohlin referred to the economy being pretty good, he was speaking specifically of the industries that feed the rooms and meal tax receipts. Beyond that, the local economic picture is less rosy.

 

The FY16 budget is predicated on $45,000 in new property value.

 

"New growth has declined steadily over the last decade," Fohlin said. "It was $210,000 in 2005 and has been going down ever since. People are just not building new homes in Williamstown. There is no new industry. Our tax base is not expanding.

 

"The absence of new growth means that all of the increase in the budget gets put on the shoulders of what I'm calling 'old growth' taxpayers."

 

The projected $21.7 million municipal budget reflects a 15 percent increase in employee and retiree health benefits over FY15.

 

That line of the budget rose 7.8 percent last year after two years of zero growth, Fohlin noted.

 

"Over a four-year period, it's not so dramatic, but the two years of no increases is catching up to us," he said. "We balanced some of that increase with savings on petroleum products."

 

Based on projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the town budget is built to include an average price of $2.75 per gallon for gasoline and $3 per gallon for diesel fuel.

 

Those numbers may sound rosy, but Fohlin pointed out that the town does not pay an 18-cent per gallon Federal Excise Tax.

 

"So that $2.75 equates to a $2.93 per gallon price when you drive by the gas station and look at the sign," he said.

 

"That may be a little risky, I suppose. I've always said that no matter what I budgeted, I was never wrong by more than a dollar either way."

 

The proposed budget includes $575,000 in capital improvements. The largest chunk, $426,000, is for resurfacing on Hancock Road (Route 43).

 

"That road is smooth and easily traveled, but it's really in tough shape if you look at it from an engineering standpoint," Fohlin said. "The pavement is on the verge of breaking up, and it becomes more expensive to replace it if we don't overlay it first."

 

Another large expenditure is $125,000 for to replace a John Deere tractor and mower used for roadside mowing. Fifty-six percent of that $125,000 will come out of water and sewer revenues, putting a $55,000 hit on the general town budget.

 

Town residents will detect one increase in fees if the proposed FY16 budget is approved by May's annual town meeting.

 

Stickers at the town's transfer station will be more costly, with a single annual sticker going from $75 to $85, a second vehicle sticker from $5 to $10 and a monthly sticker (for seasonal residents) from $8 to $10.

 

Finance Committee Chairman Elaine Neely presides over the committee meeting.

"Refuse disposal, which is primarily dependent on bag sales, is pulling its own weight," Fohlin said. "What's not pulling its own weight is recycling. Recycling is costly because we have to pay someone to take away our recyclables.

 

"Years ago, we used to make money on recyclables. They'd pay for glass and plastic and metal. And then the recycling market tanked."

 

Unlike the stickers, the price per bag for trash disposal at the transfer station will be staying the same.

 

The Finance Committee will review the budgets for specific town departments at meetings on Feb. 18 and 25.

 

There are a couple of unknowns in the FY16 budget, including the budget requests from Williamstown Elementary School, Charles H. McCann Technical School and Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

The town's elementary school committee met on Wednesday while Fohlin was meeting with the Fin Comm, and School Committee Chairwoman Valerie Hall said on Thursday that her panel is looking at a budget that can work within the 2.5 percent increase being offered by the town.

 

Mount Greylock, a two-town regional school district with Lanesborough, is another matter. Its School Committee's Finance Committee met Wednesday morning and recommended sending budgets to both towns that would exceed the 2.5 percent rise built into Williamstown's budget and the 1 percent rise requested by Lanesbororough.

 

The Mount Greylock School Committee has scheduled meetings with the Lanesborough Finance Committee on Feb. 24 and the Williamstown Fin Comm on March 4.

 

Look for more on Wednesday's Mount Greylock meeting.