Expect An Override Request

Selectmen will likely ask voters for an operating budget override of Proposition 2 ½ this spring. That’s because selectmen consider likely cuts that would have to be made without an override to be unaccept­able. “I personally think there is going to be an override without a doubt, and I don’t think there would be too many people to argue with me,” Town Ad­ministrator Jack Hathaway said dur­ing the town Advisory Board meeting this past Thursday night.

Hathaway said the size of the override will be an important decision for selectmen, as they decide whether they want to try to get by with a rela­tively

small tax increase or whether they want to ask for enough money so they don’t have to come to voters for a few years in case the budget situation remains bad. One budget scenario that town officials are working on calls for a 4 percent reduction in spending for fis­cal year 2011 (which runs from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011) from this current fiscal year.

“We know, for example, a 4 per­cent cut to the Police Department is two police officers,” said Selectman Jim Lehan, board chairman, during the Advisory Board meeting this past Thursday night. The Norfolk Police Department already has fewer police officers than the Federal Bureau of Investigation recommends for a town of Norfolk’s size. Selectmen expect to hear budget-impact scenarios from other town department heads at their meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, March 8. A level-funded municipal budget that includes expected salary increas­es for town employees leaves the town with a projected $972,000 shortfall between expected revenues and ex­pected expenses, Hathaway said. If the budget were reduced by 4 percent, the projected shortfall drops to about $25,000, he said. The budget numbers Hathaway laid out assume a level-funded budget for King Philip, which serves grades 7 through 12 for Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville.