Charlotte selectboard to vote on $2.7 million town budget

The Charlotte Selectboard has knocked more than 5 percent off its $2.9 million budget that was narrowly shot down on Town Meeting Day.

The new budget of $2,780,713 represents a decrease of $151,112 in spending, mostly represented by employee benefits and salaries.

The board plans to finalize the vote at a special meeting on Thursday, March 6.

In addition to a slew of other cuts, including the senior center, planning and zoning, traffic calming measures, donations and more, members of the selectboard also voted to nix the 2- to 3-percent annual employee salary increase outlined in the town’s Salary Administration Policy.

During the Tuesday night meeting, members also discussed the health insurance benefits package — available to employees who work more than 20 hours a week — with some town employees voicing concerns over some of the proposed changes.

“We appreciate all that the selectboard has done to adjust our wages to fair and equitable ones within our profession,” tech librarian Susanna Kahn said. “We also appreciate the benefits package that makes it possible for us to work in the town we live in. We are concerned about budget reduction efforts at the expense of town employees’ benefits that will make a minimal difference on homeowners’ tax bills.”

Others took to social media to say that some of those who are now vocal about the budget actually represent a minority as the budget was voted down by only 35 votes.

“One would think that there was an overwhelming outcry about the town budget. I suspect that this is what the selectboard hears too,” Steven Hill said in a social media post last week. “The close vote suggests that only modest changes in the budget are warranted. Much attention has focused on the salaries. A two percent raise, plus an inflation adjustment does not at all seem out of line to me. Especially in this town where the residents have so much wealth.”

“I have never once felt like the town had an excess of services or wished that the town did less,” he continued.

Although some residents at previous meetings have pointed fingers at a market analysis done by Gallagher, Flynn & Company, which the town hired to look at how salaries for Charlotte’s municipal employees stacked up against other Vermont towns, another library employee made the correction that these salary adjustments do not reflect improper raises to town employees.

“It is also continually and much more frequently stated even in these meetings that town employees got raises,” Maria Wicker from the Charlotte library said. “My question is, do the people who voted against the budget hold a misconception based on misinformation that employees were given large raises rather than employees, for the benefit of the town to attract and maintain and retain good staff, received wage adjustments so that we could have good staff people?”

The board proposed a $20,000 cut from the $233,000 budgeted for health insurance, but members explained that they don’t yet have a specific roadmap outlining where those cost cuts will come from.

The idea of forming a task force made up of town employees, selectboard members and other committee members found support at the meeting.

Findings would be presented before the start of the fiscal year on July 1.