Shelburne Selectboard sets $10.6 million budget

The Shelburne Selectboard Jan. 24 officially approved a $10,624,271 spending plan along with six other articles for Town Meeting Day.

The board also adopted increases in several fees, including those for zoning, mooring and facility use.

Of that $10.6 million budget, $8,17 million will be paid by taxes.

The nearly $730,000 increase in spending will have the town looking at a tax rate of $0.4955, a 4.65 percent increase over last year’s rate of $0.4735. That means for every $100,000 in property value, property owners can expect to pay $495.50.

“As always we have tried to maintain a limited, minimal increase, as we all know that in the last two years we’ve really kept it almost flat,” said town manager Lee Krohn at the final budget meeting. “This year with an inflationary environment, I’m actually astounded that we came in at this point. I would have expected we would have landed somewhere higher.”

Krohn noted that the municipal tax rate is just an estimate at this point, and the final rate will be determined in the spring and set by the selectboard after the grand list is finalized.

Cost drivers

One of the biggest issues this year was staffing shortages. In response, the selectboard conduct ed a system-wide staffing analysis in August to gather an overview of how the town has approached staffing in the past and gather recommendations for moving forward.

“As the budget season is unfolding, I think the entire board is thinking about our staffing needs. Every department has asked for additional help,” selectboard chair Mike Ashooh told the Shelburne News in November. “The staffing report confirmed what a lot of us suspected.”

Based on the report, regardless of Shelburne’s significant growth in population in recent years, current staffing levels have remained constant over those years, town officials noted. This results in “each department working long hours, including overtime in some departments,” making many departments “unable to complete certain projects or be proactive at times,” according to the report.

One of the major recommendations of the staffing audit was to hire a human resources person to manage hiring, performance evaluation and employee retention.

Heeding the advice, the town has budgeted nearly $50,000 to hire a consultant.

“Clearly there are those that believe strongly that we need a full-time person in house, but it hasn’t felt like we are ready to commit to that yet,” Krohn said. “But we are proposing to commit to a part time person who would be on call and ideally be present in this town office on a certain irregular basis to be available to employees and to speak to needs.”

In addition to inflation-related staffing benefit increases, nearly $167,000 has been budgeted for updating computer software and hardware. Krohn explained that the town needs to replace its aging server, the backbone of the entire computing system. He is hoping for an American Rescue Plan Act allocation of $50,000 to help with the cost.

Following a Zoom-bombing incident that had a Shelburne selectboard meeting flooded with a number of unwanted guests displaying pornographic materials, officials have been exploring alternative methods to online meetings and making cyber security a number one priority.

“Software and cybersecurity systems all need ever increasing upgrades to protect systems, limit risk and ensure cyber insurance coverage by demonstrating we’ve taken prudent steps in this regard,” Krohn said.

Although not all the kinks have been ironed out, it seems that a $189,000 increase in administrative services, including the software and hardware updates, will be a major part of the solution.

The police budget also increased by $90,000 with $20,000 being allocated specifically to a recruitment and retention program.

Some of the additional cost drivers were salaries, stipends and equipment increases within the fire, public safety and dispatch, and highway departments. All three saw an increase of more than $100,000 over last year’s budget.

Town meeting articles

In addition to budget items, voters will be asked to authorize six additional articles, including the election of town officers.

Voters will be asked to approve $50,000 for acquiring land or rights in land to preserve natural resources and open space.

Two questions would authorize the purchase of portable and mobile radios for the fire department — not to exceed $97,000 — and to authorize bonds or notes in an amount not to exceed $1,150,514 for the purpose of financing the second and final stage of a water meter replacement project.

The major question before voters, however, is an amendment to the town charter to implement a 1 percent local option tax. Under such a plan, state tax rates for alcoholic beverages (10 percent), meals (9 percent) and sales (6 percent) would all increase by 1 percent.

The levy is administered by the state, which keeps 30 percent of taxes collected, remitting 70 percent to the town. If adopted for the 2024 fiscal year, the town’s finance committee has projected it could generate $939,961 in local option tax revenues.

Prior to the vote, the selectboard held two public hearings where community members voiced concerns and opinions over the levy.

“This is a question that came up roughly a year ago at this point,” Krohn said. “The foundational question being are there other ways the town can diversify its revenues besides its heavy reliance on the property tax.”

After nearly five months of decision making, the selectboard expressed its overwhelming support of the finalized budget.

“I was dreading this about four months ago, particularly when inflation started skyrocketing,” said Ashooh.

“We really appreciate the flexibility and willingness to make tough decisions,” said board member Kate Lalley.