Former selectman: Ashby can't sustain spending level
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Mike McCallum presents graphs of Ashby's spending levels during a recent selectmen's meeting.

Former selectman Mike McCallum last week presented an analysis of the town's budget trends over the last 21 years, telling selectmen the trend is unsustainable.

Selectmen, Town Administrator Linda Sanders, and the Finance Committee have spent the last few months struggling to keep the FY07 budget functioning and plan for the FY08 budget. They all expect substantial cuts in the new budget.

"There is hardly anything left to cut," McCallum told the board at their Feb. 21 meeting. "We can't cut our way out of it."

He said the biggest issue is increasing school spending combined with decreasing new-growth money.

McCallum had graphs showing how departments' budgets kept up with inflation over the last 20 years. The general government account and the police department accounts increased over inflation.

"Those lines that went up it is because the demand went up," Sanders said.

The graphs showed that the highway department decreased compared to inflation rates.

"The highway department is the emergency piggy bank," McCallum said.

Sanders said the Finance Committee, selectmen and the department heads had all presented balanced budgets for FY08. But she added, "not one of those three budgets will actually work."

McCa l l um said departments are not overfunded nor are employees overpaid. He said there is a "structural issue," within the budget of Ashby and most other towns.

The structural problem comes when the cost of running a town is increasing faster than inflation and when the cost of the regional school district is increasing at 7 to 8 percent a year.

About 54 percent of the town's budget is spent on education, between the North Middlesex Regional School District and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School.

"An override would help but it wouldn't get us out of it," he said. "We aren't generating free cash like we used too."

Selectman Peter McMurray said he is concerned because the state is crying poverty and he doesn't believe there will be an increase in state aid or school aid.

McCallum said the solution is to work with the school district to show the effects on the town of school spending, and then work with the state.

"There is going to be pent-up demand," McCallum said. "We've cut everything to the bone."

In other business:

+ Selectmen agreed to put two articles on the upcoming annual town meeting warrant. One would allow the town to buy a 12.5-acre land-locked parcel between Main and Foster streets.

They also placed an article for the Historical Commission which is seeking matching funds to apply for a grant to restore the old firehouse.

+ The residents asking that Daley Drive become a public roadway did not attend the meeting after requesting a public hearing.