At our Monday prep meeting, we explained that this year’s spending budget is so fat it spills over into six articles –ARTICLES 6, 7 8 AND 10, 11 AND 12.

Article 6 uses up just about all the property tax and other revenues expected in FY10 to pay for the spending in Article 6 - $32.4 million.

But spending in the other five articles totals about $2.2 million for which there is no current revenue. This deficit spending is financed off budget, by invading emergency savings accounts and using money that could wind up in the savings accounts if not spent.

While some will pooh-pooh this deficit spending and say using the Stabilization Fund is no big deal, state law says otherwise: It takes a two-thirds vote to take money out of the Stabilization Fund, which is supposed to be for emergencies.

Are we in an emergency now? How can you say that when Article 6 (the core Operating Budget) and Article 7 have pay raises ranging as high as 6% for school and non-school employees, including “cost of living increases” when inflation is zero or less? Not counting the increases in health care and pension benefits, pay raises total more than $730,000. Hardly an emergency that justifies raiding the Stabilization Fund.

To make the Article 6 budget look smaller, the additional $2.2 million in spending is spread around in these five other Articles. But all six Articles should be considered as this year’s spending plan and all six should be voted down (NO) so that they can all be sent back to the Selectmen and School Committee to produce a lean, realistic budget for these tough times for those who pay the bills.

We have alerted the Town Moderator that, if the fat budget is rejected, we plan to move that the Town Meeting, after all other Articles are dealt with, be recessed until June 15th, giving the Selectmen and School Committee a full month to slim down the budget to prepare for the uncertain years ahead. These are different times. The extravagant spending of the past can not continue.

FY10 may be tough. FY11 may be tougher. Even the Town Administration has said that the schools must drastically reduce their spending or be pleading for overrides every year in the future.

The economy has gone south in each of the last two quarters, shrinking more than 6% each quarter. While some forecast a bottoming later this calendar year, no one is looking for more than the economy staying flat or crawling upward at a sluggish pace.

So what do we do at Town Meeting? The simple instruction, if you want to see a leaner budget, is to VOTE NO ON ARTICLES 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12. (Article 9 is about the water department, which is self supporting.)

Article 27 is important. Here the vote is YES if you want to kill the $17 million monstrosity that’s wildly overbuilt. Putting police with the planning and permitting people makes no sense. (Yes, they do all begin with the letter "P.") We do need new police and fire facilities. Keeping public safety together makes sense for cost-savings, coverage sharing and synergy. They’re together now and should stay together, wherever that is. Save $17 million. We have one Taj Mahal. We don’t need another.

Contact your neighbors with this message. Remember that every piece of spending in the budget has some group that wants it, so those who pay the bills have to turn out to get their voices and votes into the action. If enough people who are upset about this extravagant spending turn out in sufficient numbers, we can start down the path to sane spending.

There’s lots in the Warrant. Take the time to read it.