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By Jack Buba
Fix It First — That is how we should view this current budget crisis in Marblehead. I am happy to support an override if only the town were willing to look at alternatives other than cutting two of the services the town wants most: the library and Council on Aging (COA).
The problem is that the town proposes to change nothing in return for a massive infusion of cash. They simply want to put back everything as it was and then add more spending.
That is not how to react to a budget crisis.
What we should expect from our leaders is thoughtful management where they consider innovative ways to reduce spending, such as investing in technology (I'd support an override for that), consolidation of departments, revisiting benefits and outsourcing. These are things that any functioning business would consider before raising prices. Make no mistake — an override is just raising the price of a product.
If we were to deliver this pallet of cash to town leaders, what evidence do we have that they will not just go on with business as usual, which got us here in the first place? Past history gives us no reason to believe anything will change.
Consider the graph below showing the savings when Marblehead switched to the Group Insurance Commission (GIC). The town has saved over $146 million. You can see that although the insurance costs went down sharply, saving roughly $9 million, the original $18 million remained in the budget. Thus, every year thereafter, that savings was in the budget, less the increase in insurance.
When you total up all that savings from then until now, you have a whopping $146 million. As we know all this savings was eventually spent on other things.
If we now pass an override with a $9 million or $15 million tax increase forever, we should expect that this too will all be spent with no fundamental changes to their spendthrift approach.
So, "Fix It First" says that we need to put in place real structural changes which will reduce the year-over-year spending before we agree to just throw more money at the problem.
Now the pro-override people will ask, "What are the other options to drastic cuts?" While the members of the select board have not been very forthcoming with any long-term creative saving ideas except threating to close the library and cut the COA, here a few ideas for consideration:
- Consolidate finance and human resources departments — We currently have separate finance and HR departments for the town and schools. Merge these departments and grandfather in all the employees but move to reduce costs as the employees leave or retire.
- Outsource the dump — There are plenty of towns that have outsourced their transfer stations to private contractors. Again, grandfather in current employees, but let the contractor replace them as needed when they move on or retire. The dump is currently run by the Board of Health which is ill-equipped to handle heavy machinery and industrial loads. It is better if they concentrate on health issues like vaccinations and food safety and let the trash professionals handle the dump.
- Reduce insurance costs — Marblehead insurance costs are the highest when compared surrounding towns and amongst the highest in the state. Marblehead pays 83 percent of employee insurance costs while Marblehead taxpayers are paying much more (along the lines of 76 percent). The select board cited these insurance costs as uncontrollable and a prime driver for an override. However, it is now known that the very agreement that sets how much the town contributes to insurance is up for renewal and could be changed, this year, right now (must be signed by July 1). The insurance costs are controllable and the select board deceived us by saying there was nothing they could do to control insurance costs.
- Privatize landscaping — There are plenty of private contractors with the capacity to take over most of the landscaping (mowing, edging, etc.) in town. Again, the agreement could grandfather current employees until they move on or retire.
While not all of the suggestions above will bring cost savings on day one, they would over time reduce spending. Frankly, if the town had put forth these or other proposals showing projected reduced costs and they needed an override to tide them over until these structural changes took effect, I'm betting that such a plan would have overwhelming support.
When you are managing a town budget and the only tools you seem to have are spending and cutting, then you are not really managing the costs, they are managing you.
When you are faced with budget issues and your only suggestions are more spending or cutting items that punish the taxpayers or threaten the elderly, then you are not doing your job.
A Select Board member recently said that she spent hours and hours agonizing over the budget numbers to no avail. This is indicative of the wrong approach: the solution is not on the spreadsheet; it is in the minds of our leaders.
These leaders want us to reward their failure in managing costs with a huge bonanza of new tax money to spend, promising to "do better next time."
We need to say no to this gigantic, three-year, multi-tiered override. It is the only way to force the town to seek alternatives and address the spending that is driving us to bust our budgets.
People fear that if we say no to this three-year tiered override, we will face all these unacceptable cuts. Never fear, all it takes is a few signatures to call a special town meeting to put items back in the budget and maybe to propose a one-year reasonable override. I am confident that some industrious citizens might already be pursuing this option.
Jack Buba is a longtime Marblehead resident, a former Finance Committee member and a former board member / finance committee chair for the Marblehead Charter School.
