Our State delegation recently presented an update to the Town outlining their priorities in assisting Andover through these challenging times. Progress has been made on a number of issues brought to their attention in a recent letter crafted by the chairs of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Finance Committee.
See the letter here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYDybAa5lil0ZGNuaHNnYjNfMGhmN2JtY2du&hl=en
The legislators reported that:
1. Communities now have the option of instituting a meals tax as a revenue source. Andover voted in October to adopt the meals tax which is estimated to generate an additional $206,000 for FY10.
2. Communities also have the option of increasing the hotel tax which Andover adopted in August. This will generate an estimated $320,588 in new revenue for FYlO.
3. The micro-purchasing threshold for building related maintenance work has been increased from $1 to $5,000. Prior to this legislation, all repairs/maintenance items required three bids which added an unnecessary burden for all jobs.
The legislators are working on the following issues that will help Andover in the future:
1. Regarding health insurance benefits for part-time employees (currently employees working 20+ hours per week), a bill has been filed to raise the threshold to 30 hours or more. Health insurance has a major impact on the budget with $12,440,000 to be spent in the current fiscal year.
2. Pension funding is another area of considerable concern for municipal budgets. The current funding schedule requiring communities to be fully funded by 2030 is not realistic in this time of fiscal crisis. Andover's obligation for 2010 is $4,635,498 with 2015 having a projected obligation of $5,356,611, an increase of over 11% over 5 years. The legislators are working on extending the funding schedule by 10 years, to 2040.
3. Municipalities are urging the legislature to end the telecom personal property tax loophole on equipment which would generate extra local revenue.
4. With regard to the issue of prevailing wage, a bill has been filed to exempt municipal capital projects under $200,000 and for public-private partnerships that benefit the community. The proposed Youth Center, for example, could be a beneficiary in the latter case.
5. The Quinn Bill, a police career incentive program, is mandated by the State but has experienced a cut in State funding which now has to be borne by the town. The legislature is urged to pass legislation clarifying that municipalities are NOT responsible for paying the State's share of the program.
6. Regarding health insurance plan design, a bill has been filed that would allow municipalities to update their health insurance plans outside of collective bargaining. This could help us to achieve significant cost savings. Currently, no changes can be made to health insurance plans without bargaining.
Andover has been severely impacted by the reduction in State Aid over the past several years. This has led to employee layoffs, service cuts, deferred maintenance and the adoption of local option taxes. The most recent cuts have affected the library, transportation and special education funding. The circuit breaker (special education funding), for instance, is now at 40% reimbursement, down from a high of 75%.
The three Boards will continue to work with our legislators in the coming months to ensure the success of these critical municipal relief and reform issues.
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Race to the top dollars from the fed are a very poor choice to try and get funds for Andover. How can you base pay for teachers on the performance of their students. At first blush this might seem like a good idea but with further examination it is a very poor idea. If a teacher has no controle over what students come into their classes, and they do not, how could you do this. The students could come from broken homes, parents that relegate their responsability to others to take care of their kids, maybe they do not get fed in the morning. No matter how good the teachers are the kids can still not learn.
ReplyDeleteAny monies or services you are thinking of sharing with LAwrence is nuts too. Look at their school system...they get all this money from everyone but themselves and still cant help themselves.
The state and federal monies goes to urban schools systems and towns like Andover get nothing
Regarding prevailing wages, the Legislature has to do something not just for projects under 200K it needs to apply to everything. We cannot continue to give everything to municipal and labor unions paid for by our residents. This is killing the cities and towns. We need to build a new school to replace Bancroft and it will save the town a lot of money. The only solutions towns and the state have come up with in this fiscal crisis is to raise revenues. We have jacked up the state sales tax by 25%(Thank You Barry & Barbara!)and have added local options hotel and meals taxes here. Please do what is responsible for all taxpayers in Andover and other municipalities and git rid of the "Pacheco Law" and other prevailing wage laws.
ReplyDeleteDo you have an update on the legislative progress, if any, on the six action items identified above?
ReplyDelete