By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — Have wrapped up multiple hours of budget presentations from all town departments over the course of three meetings in March plus an additional two workshop sessions, the Select Board continues to work with the town’s financial planners to balance the FY26 budget.
Department heads were tasked in late March with reviewing their budgets further with the goal of finding savings wherever possible. They came up with pages of cuts to save anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars. These suggested budget cuts were then ranked in order from 0 to 7 and the impact to the program or the department was also described, such as potentially making a program unsustainable in the future, delaying maintenance that could result in a higher expense in the future to the reduction in hours of personnel, the elimination of positions, or the need to increase fees to make up for a shortfall of essential services.
The starting point was a budget deficit of $721,266. Due to a revised new growth figure (in a positive direction for the town’s finances) and the potential to realize additional savings in the town’s health insurance policy (which covers both town and school employees), that budget deficit could be potentially be reduced by an additional $192,293. Another $25,038 budget adjustment was identified from an earlier budget submittal in February making the revised shortfall $503,935.
During the Select Board’s discussions March 26 and April 7, the items concentrated on for cutting were those ranked 1-3, with those in the 4-7 category set aside but waiting in the wings.
Cuts ranked 1-3 if approved, would reduce the deficit by another $373,742, making the shortfall $130,193. It is important to note that the numbers continue to fluctuate and state aid figures will not be finalized until after the annual Town Meeting on June 9.
The Select Board plans to vote on the final budget on Monday, May 5 in order to get the Town Meeting warrant to the printers and in the mail two weeks prior to the meeting.
At the end of the April 7 meeting no votes had been taken by the board on any of the suggested cutbacks as it remains early in their budget deliberations and the members are awaiting final recommendations from the town administrator and finance director. Board Chairman Vincenzo Stuto requested that T.A. Michael Gilleberto and his team provide their final recommendations on the budge to the board at their next meeting on Monday, April 14.
The Financial Planning Team, comprised of department heads, will be meeting again on Friday to further evaluate the suggested cuts. The administrators are also actively engaged with department heads and employees with regard to the potential savings in health insurance by switching carriers. Remaining with the current carrier, BCBS, would result in a 15.8 percent price increase while negotiating with the potential new carrier looks to be closer to half of that.
The new growth figures rose from $880,000 on March 24 to $1.3M as of April 4 due to more new units coming online sooner than anticipated. The available revenue from taxes for FY26 increased by $450,000 — from $66,563,521 to $67,013,521 — in the same time period.