With significant bumps in the tax rate and layoffs expected out of the school district and town’s proposed budgets, Pittsfield residents packed the middle school’s cafeteria for the town’s public hearing on Wednesday night.
“The tax rate – we can’t do it. My family, and my husband actually makes pretty good money. We can’t afford to live here. It’s getting to the point where – it’s crazy,” one resident, Caylene Coculo, told the room.
Both the school board and the select board have pitched budgets with potentially sizeable tax hikes over the current rate – $2.97 per $1,000 in valuation on the school side and $1.06 on the town side. And both are looking at cutting personnel.
The school district’s $10,230,732 spending plan, which is up $384,254 from this year, includes cutting eight full-time positions and canceling two contracted positions. Pittsfield School District Superintendent John Freeman told residents that if the district had proposed a budget that simply maintained programs and staffing as is, the tax hike would have neared $5.
The town’s schools were hit with a 17 percent increase in health insurance costs for next year, increased pension contributions, and $623,705 in new special education out-of-district placements. On top of that, they’ll lose $86,000 next year in state education aid as the state phases out its stabilization program, which gives extra money to property-poor towns.
Freeman showed residents slides comparing Pittsfield to other towns, arguing that Pittsfield’s high taxes aren’t a result of above-average spending, but instead of the town’s relatively poor property tax base per student.
“The problem is not in Pittsfield. It’s the state system of funding schools,” he said.
On the town’s side, conversation was again dominated by the select board’s decision to cut two positions from the police budget, including the town’s school resource officer.
Because both positions are tied to a federal grant the town would need to reimburse, the town will need to spend more in the short term in order to cut the positions.
Police Chief Jeff Cain also said services would be severely impacted and that if overtime were cut, the town could lose its 24-hour coverage.
“We’ll have less resources than we did 20 years ago at a time when our needs are twice as great,” he said.
A petitioned warrant article would add $150,000 to the budget in order to restore the positions. If the article passes, the town will need to recruit and train a new officer to fill the SRO’s spot. With his job on the chopping block, the officer currently in the district has accepted a position in Pembroke.
The budget committee is expecting to vote on their budget recommendations in the coming days.
Residents will elect officers and vote on zoning amendments by paper ballot on from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 14 at Town Hall. Voting on all remaining articles, including the budget, will take place from the floor, starting at 10 a.m., on March 18 at the Pittsfield Elementary School gymnasium. The school district’s annual meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 16 at the Pittsfield Elementary School.
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)