Last week, when Gov. Deval Patrick released his proposed $3.4 billion budget, Town Administrator John Coderre said that the $85,000 in local aid to Northborough would essentially mean level funding.
Reporting further to the Board of Selectmen this past Monday, he expanded on his analysis, but it varied little, if any, from his inital response last week.
"It appears under the governor's proposal that state aid will increase slightly at about $85,000," said Coderre, "which sounds like a lot of money, but on the scale, it's not the earth shattering increase that we'd love to see."
With the release of a proposed budget, Coderre said he shares the information with the caveat that there is a piece that is missing. It's the "other side of state aid, which are the assessments."
Towns such as Northborough are assessed on everything from MBTA (because it it borders a town with a bus stop) to schools to mosquito control. Without knowing what the town is assessed at, it's nearly impossible to know what the net increase in aid will actually be. The assessment of Assabet Valley Regional High School and Algonquin Regional High School, especially, are "big numbers."
"We are about $30,000 to the plus side when you take assessments into account," he said. "The piece to keep in mind is that several new taxes are predicted [in Patrick's budget] such as income tax and taxes for candy and soda, with a decrease in sales tax. Many of these things have been proposed in the past and they couldn't get it through legislature."
Years ago, Coderre said towns would receive cherry sheets much earlier, allowing administrators to plug in budget numbers and whittle down a working budget.
"Unfortunately, the trend we've seen over the last five years is that the information comes later and later," he said, "and it makes it difficult for us to get information and get our budget out there. Years ago, we knew where we were going to be. The uncertainty just permeates everything."
Coderre said he expects the budget to be level funded with FY2013, particularly after "bending the ear" of some financial officers at a recent MMA conference.