Town Manager Bill Hinchey presented an overview of the budget he has put together for Chatham's fiscal 2010 beginning July 1 to the Board of Selectmen, Tuesday, January 20th. He did a very professional job in describing in detail how he and department heads had gone through staffing and other spending to see what efficiencies could be achieved.

However, despite much talk about "cuts" to keep the budget under control, Hinchey presented a budget that is more than 4% higher than fiscal 2009's spending -- and he proposes an override at the Annual Town Meeting in May to add another $630,000 to operational spending, pushing the increase over FY09 to 6.3%.

In other words, there is no "CUT' in overall spending, no "holding of the line" in these difficult times. This seems like business as usual.

Since FY2001 the Chatham operating budget has grown 44% through the fiscal year ending this June, averaging over 5.5% growth a year. So proposing operating budget growth of 6.3% for FY10 is not exactly "belt-tightening" for the town.

Several members of our concerned taxpayers group showed up for the hearing and more had indicated they would view the hearing over Channel 18. The Selectmen’s hearing is (or shortly will be) posted on the town's webiste for "On Demand" viewing.

This is just the first step in the public budget process. Board Chairman Sean Summers indicated that the Board would be diving deeply into the budget and had not committed itself to anything – be it accepting the Town Manager's approach, accepting the School Committee budget (an increase of 10%, the highest it had ever asked for over the past six years!) or whether they would support an override for anything.

Because of the peculiarities of a Massachusetts law designed to restrain increases in property taxes to no more than 2 1/2% per year (absent a town meeting override vote), some Massachusetts towns have gotten into the habit of raising the levy -- and the town budget -- a minimum of 2 1/2% a year plus whatever additional spending could be supported by other revenues. Since Chatham has been the beneficiary of a great deal of expensive second-home building by non-residents since 2000, those additions to the tax base brought even more property under the levy, hence the operating budget growth from $21.8 million in fiscal 2001 to a proposed $32.8 (or $33.4) million for fiscal 2010 -- 50% higher than nine years ago.

Several members of the Finance Committee which reports to the Town Meeting on the budget the Selectmen wind up recommending to the Annual Town Meeting attended. Chairman Colie Yeaw invited Selectmen to attend their meetings and indicated the Finance Committee would coordinate closely with the Selectmen in scheduling interviews with School Department and other town officials. The budget process is starting about one month behind schedule, so the Selectmen will be doubling up their meetings to have their recommendations ready by April 1 to enable a timely printing of the warrant for the May Annual Town Meeting.

Selectman Len Sussman agreed they had many other important matters to discuss before the April 1 deadline, but that the budget in these difficult financial times was such an important document the Selectmen should do all they could to dig deeply into it to learn and see what savings can be achieved in both the "town" and the "schools" budgets. After all, it's one budget as far as the taxpayers are concerned.

Taxpayers took the microphone to oppose any idea of an override and to question the enormous budget increase being asked by the School Committee. Town Manager Hinchey indicated he could not speak in detail, that was for the School Department, but he did note that some 88% or so of their budget is personnel costs. Apparently, there are significiant salary increases in that budge which jumps by 10%, even though recently released Consumer Price data for 2009, which roughly parallels cost of living, showed only a 0.1% increase, the smallest increase in decades. The nation is currently in a deflationary, not an inflationary, period, so significant salary increases presumably related to "cost of living" are puzzling.

A new Selectmen's meeting schedule will be posted shortly. The Finance Committee weekly meetings on Thursdays begin this Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Selectmen's Room, Town Hall and will be shown on Channel 18 live and then posted on the town's website. A very important meeting will be held Thursday a week later, January 29th, to hear from the Superintendent of Schools and the School Committee.

This is apparently a novel thought, but should not there be an effort to hold the operating budget to the same level as fiscal 2009 and use whatever "room" there is in the property tax levy to add to the town's rainy day fund for a possibly even grimmer FY11?

The process is just beginning and taxpayer involvement is called for to show support for town officials' efforts to look out for those who pay the bills.

The presentation only covered planned spending. No town balance sheet or income statement showing sources of revenue was produced.

Today's Cape Cod Chronicle notes the involvement of the Chatham Republican Town Committee in the budget process in these tough times:

Last week, the Chatham Republican Town Committee adopted a resolution praising town officials for their budget-cutting efforts so far, and encouraging them to produce a balanced budget for all town departments, including the schools.

“We have enjoyed the fat years and now must cope with the lean,” committee Chairman Walter Bilowz wrote in a letter to the board of selectmen.

The Chronicle report generally struck a positive note, but misstated the amount of the growth in the proposed budget from FY09 to FY10, saying it was 2.1% when in fact it is over 4%. The error is understandable since the chart distributed by the Finance Department prior to the hearing carried that error. It was corrected in the PowerPoint slide presentation of Mr. Hinchey, but remains uncorrected on the town website, where it is part of the Town Manager's Summary Report.