Hathaway: 4 Percent Cut May Not Be Enough

Even a 4 percent reduction in Norfolk’s municipal budget next fiscal year still leaves the town with a pro­jected $336,000 deficit between expected revenues and expected expenses, Town Administrator Jack Hathaway said this week.

That’s because state legislators have said recent­ly they expect to approve less local aid for cities and towns than Governor Deval Patrick proposed in late January. In some ways it’s the silly season of municipal budgeting, because town officials all over the state put together budgets based on local aid amounts that don’t turn out to be accurate and expense lines that are usually overstated.

Town officials want to make sure that they aren’t budgeting for less money than they will actually spend, so their estimates on local revenues are usually con­servative and their estimates for projected expenses are usually on the high side. So it’s almost impossible to predict what sorts of reductions in local services town officials will ulti­mately have to make. But so far this budget season seems different from past years, because town officials are calling for steep­er reductions in spending while still unsure they can close the projected budget gap. Selectmen plan to discuss likely budget cuts on Tuesday, March 30, in anticipation of a meeting with the town’s Advisory Board on Wednesday, March 31.

The Norfolk School Committee, which oversees the town’s elementary schools, also plans to attend the Advisory Board meeting this coming Wednesday night. Annual Town Meeting approves the town budget each spring. Town Meeting is scheduled to begin in mid-May.