Merrimac Town Meetings

Sweetsir Elementary School, 104 Church Street, Merrimac, MA 01860

Merrimac's budget, including all salaries, trash collection invoices and school invoices is approved by Town Meeting. Attend Town Meetings to vote on how your tax dollars are spent. Warrant articles and Finance Committee reports are posted as PDF downloads. PDFs can be viewed with the free Adobe Reader software.

In accordance with town by-law, town meeting will be called to order promptly at 7:30 PM, with those who are then present being the quorum necessary. Please allow for sufficient time to check in.

April 27, 2009 at 7:30 PM Special and Annual Town Meetings.

Town of Merrimac Finance Committee Report FY 2010

To the Voters and Taxpayers of Merrimac: (letter excerpt from the complete Financial Committee Report)

The national recession has hit Massachusetts and has caused a severe economic downturn. The Finance Committee was faced with a difficult challenge in their primary duties as a committee to advise and make recommendations at town meeting on budget and other areas of finance.

At the onset of the 2010 budget season, Town Departments were informed of anticipated cuts of up to 10% in State Aid and reduced new growth and permit revenue in Merrimac. Motor vehicle excise is also expected to be lower than previously expected. Town Departments cooperated and presented budgets that were below their requests in the FY09. They worked diligently to re-examine their budgets, cut any excess and looked for cost saving efficiencies.

The Town’s Budget also includes the cost of education, an important factor in any community. This year, the schools in our districts, the Pentucket Regional School and the Whittier Regional Vocational School, are facing the same economic pressures. Using State formulas to determine each community’s share, Merrimac is faced with a total increase over last year’s assessment of $573,130 ($397,073 & $176,057 respectively). In total, between town’s revenue shortages and the increase in the school assessments, we were facing a deficit budget of $646,428.

The Finance Committee and town officials looked at each department’s budget in detail once again and this time made cuts which, sadly affect services provided by the town. Reductions in this second round included employees forgoing any pay increases, reducing hours in animal control, ZBA, Assessor’s, office coverage for several departments and reducing or eliminating part-time laborers and summer help. Expense line items were reduced in all departments and we have eliminated the Household Hazardous Waste program with the hopes of joining efforts with a surrounding town for this service.

The only item in the budget which is a new growth item is for the Department of Public Works Director which we are required to fill at this time. Last year town residents voted to create a DPW Department, which was then passed into law by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Beyond the requirement, however, we feel the person hired for this position will ultimately create the unity and structure between the departments involved which will lead to further cost saving measures.

We are recommending a budget that includes a $315,000 Override – the Education Override. This roughly represents a tax increase of $153 for the average home valued at $363,500. We are supporting this override, despite the economic atmosphere, solely because if the Town is required to absorb the $315,000 shortfall in the budget, services would be devastated.

In the event that the override does not pass then there will be many difficult and unpleasant choices make. The Town of Merrimac would struggle to function and deliver services as we know them. We would be forced to look at possibly eliminating all trash pickup, reducing positions in the Police force which currency functions with 6 full-time officers, and reserve officers.

For FY09, the Town’s Reserves, both Stabilization and Free Cash are $687,468. This represents 6.2% of our overall operating budget. The Department of Revenue recommends that towns maintain anywhere from 5-15% of their operating budget as reserve. We are at the low end, and although tempted to try to fill the revenue shortfall using these reserves, we are holding to sound financial practices and not using savings to live on. We are expecting the Fiscal Year 2011 will face similar shortfalls from the state as well.

Our responsibility at town meeting is to present the voting taxpayer with recommendations for a balanced town-wide operating budget. The Committee’s recommended town budget is determined by anticipated revenue (including state aid, local receipts, and other available funds), anticipated state and local assessments, the realistic viability of the town departments’ expenditure requests, and the long-term financial goals of the town. We began this budget with news that local aid was being cut across the state. Local aid is used by cities and towns to pay for essential core services: educating our children, policing the streets, fighting fires, responding to emergencies, collecting trash, and maintaining safe roads. When local aid is cut, local services are cut, and everyone is impacted. The Finance Committee is presenting a budget that we feel is in the best interest of the town.

We would like to thank all the Departments for their cooperation and understanding during these challenging financial times.

Respectfully submitted by the Town of Merrimac Finance Committee.