The second budget session in Rindge has produced its first round of budget cuts, albeit by a small margin of $1,310 in three line items.
The Select Board and the Budget Advisory Committee met Wednesday to go over the 2017 proposed planning, executive, town office, technology, and other smaller budgets.
The two groups decided to cut $250 from the audit expenses line item in the town office budget, $1,000 from the assessing contractor line item in the assessing budget, and $60 from the meetings line item in the welfare budget.
“Last year we had some expenses that caused us to over spend [the assessing contractor line item],” said Finance Director Ellen Smith, explaining why $1,000 could be cut, keeping the line item at a flat $3,000. “I don’t think that will reoccur.”
Overall, many of the 15 individual budgets discussed Wednesday stayed flat or saw a reduction in comparison to last year’s. The largest decreases over last year’s budget were in the planning and town office budgets, accounting for decreases of $15,541 and $15,757 respectively.
Elections will also see a drop of over $10,000 as the town will only have one election in 2017.
Much of the change in the Planning Board’s budget came from two areas, both reductions in salary. Planning Director Kirk Stenersen has told the town that he can do his job properly in less hours than previous, accounting for a budget reduction of about $5,000 and the bookkeeper position has been added to the town office budget, in addition to having its hours cut.
Much of the budgetary change over last year’s town office budget deals with benefits received by town employees. The town’s new executive secretary, Christine Smith, has elected to take a health insurance stipend over a health insurance plan, which saves the town money. Additionally, since the bookkeeper position is now part-time, benefits will no longer be offered.
The insurance budget is scheduled to see an increase of $21,923 next year, much of which is tied to workman’s compensation.
Smith said the increase is due to previous year’s budgets containing a premium holiday, which saved the town money. This year, Smith has not heard of any premium holiday, so the budget reflects the full cost of workman’s comp.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.