Economy forces selectmen to question budget

Last Monday it was announced that the United States has officially been in a recession since December of last year. As such, the state of the economy was a point of discussion at the Hopkinton Selectmen’s meeting Monday.
“We all know the economy’s been bad, but I believe the stock market is 100 percent psychological, there’s very little basis on scientific fact. And just the word that we’re in an official recession is going to cause us to be even worse. So this budget as it stands is fine now, but I think we’re in for worse times,” Selectman Chris Lawless stated.
Lawless reported back concerning the past week’s Budget Committee meeting. He relayed to the Selectmen that the Budget Committee is happy the budget is low, but they question the economy and what will happen next year.
A focal point of the Budget Committee meeting was the Hopkinton School Budget. As discussed, the school’s proposed budget boasts a net increase of 3.77 percent over last year’s.
“Based on a $15 million budget, the 3.77 percent increase amounts to a $565,500 increase over last year,” pointed out Chairman Scott Flood, noting these were just back of the hand figures.
Lawless noted that the Hopkinton School Board has already asked the Superintendent Brian Blake to figure out proposals for a 0 and 1 percent increase.
Lawless also reported that the Budget Committee had questions concerning the EMS department. Notably, the committee wanted to know if EMS should have departments with the towns it works with, Warner and Webster, rather than the current system where the towns are billed at the end of the year.
Hypothetically, the committee posed the situation wherein a town had zero EMS calls throughout the year. As it stands now, the town wouldn’t be billed for anything, but the Budget Committee isn’t sure that’s fair, as they would have still had someone on call the whole time.
Concerning the town’s overall budget, Lawless commented that where it stands is fine for now, but he questions the future.
On that note, Flood said he thinks the board should continue to cut.
“When we have a 5.75 percent increase in the Recreation Department and we don’t have enough money to pay to reconstruct our roads, I think that’s just bad policy,” Flood highlighted.
Flood mentioned that while the budget is only over last year’s expenditures by a small amount, he would consider reducing the recreation budget further to cut the overall budget saying, “I know I’m the minority on the board, but I just think it’d be wise to do that to increase our surplus going into uncertain times.”
Lawless informed the board that the Recreation Director, Justin La Vigne, may be able to reduce the Recreation budget on his own by utilizing camp counselors from a federal source.
Flood also mentioned looking towards increasing Hopkinton’s business activity as a means of removing some of the burden residents currently bear for the cost of the town.