The last 12 months have been a period of uncertainty almost none of us have ever encountered, emotionally, professionally, and economically. As we arrive at the onset of the municipal budget season — the same stage we were at when the pandemic shuttered Maine last year — we humbly enter this new budget season with a priority for restoration.
When formulating the current Fiscal Year 2021 budget, the COVID-19 pandemic placed multiple challenges and constraints on the Town Council. A number of uncertainties were front of mind throughout the extended duration of budget review and adoption in spring of 2020. The impact on municipal revenues, including excise tax and state revenue sharing, were unknown at the time. It was also unclear to what extent the economic impact from the pandemic would be on our residents and their capacity to pay property taxes. While we used conservative revenue estimates, we expect to exceed these estimates, and fortunately the collection of property taxes does not appear to be adversely impacted.
In an effort to develop a budget that was in line with the current situation and its unforeseeable future, we made a number of decisions at that time to reduce our expenditures beginning in the spring of 2020. The intention was to carry those savings into the FY21 fiscal year, and defer some expenses later into the fiscal year. Here are examples of areas where budget reductions occurred:
In May 2020, the town entered into an agreement with the Maine Department of Labor to implement a WorkShare program that partially furloughed nearly 40 percent of our full-time personnel. While there were undoubtedly impacts to customer service with reduced hours, emergency services were not impacted and the 12-week program saved the town over $400,000 over the last two months of FY20 and first month of FY21.
We deferred the hiring of six vacant full-time positions in our Public Works, Police, Fire and Community Services departments, resulting in approximate savings of $185,000.
With the cooperation and support of our three collective bargaining groups (Police, Fire, and Dispatch), combined with that of our non-bargaining personnel, contractual cost of living adjustments were deferred by six months, resulting in an approximate savings of over $200,000.
While the actions outlined above were significant, many of the deferred costs will need to be fully realized in the FY22 budget if current service levels are to be maintained. These costs, combined with partially restoring other staff investments such as training and development, will undoubtedly create a sizable challenge for the Town Council this year.
On March 31, I will be presenting a proposed FY22 budget to the Town Council commencing July 1. Like much of the rest of the country, we are looking forward to a return to some level of normalcy in FY22. We look forward to engaging with our community through the upcoming budget process and continue to meet the needs and demands of Scarborough.
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