The budget season is officially underway

Town Manager Crabtree briefs selectmen on his preliminary spending plan for the 2025 Fiscal Year

By Mark E. Vogler

Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree has recommended $33.1 million for the School Department for the 2025 Fiscal Year that begins July 1 – an increase of $1.5 million over the Fiscal Year 2024 budget approved last spring by the Annual Town Meeting. But that’s still $1.2 million less than the proposed Saugus Public Schools budget recommended by Superintendent Michael Hashem and approved by the School Committee.

“I’m sure I’m going to get tons of criticism for what I gave the schools,” Crabtree told selectmen Tuesday (Feb. 27) night during his annual budget briefing in the first floor conference room at Saugus Town Hall.

The preliminary spending plan unveiled by the town manager includes municipal general fund operating budgets totaling $78.3 million to go with proposed school spending, which adds up to an estimated $111.4 million in total general fund operating budgets.

“We try to be conservative… not try to overspend. We spend within our means. That’s something the schools need to do,” Crabtree told selectmen.

The total estimated Expenditure Budget is nearly $118 million for the General Fund and $15 million for the Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds, for a total Fiscal Year 2025 estimated expenditure amount of nearly $133 million.

Selectmen voted unanimously to recommend the town manager’s operating budget, forwarding it to the Finance Committee, which will begin hearings on each department budget before making its recommendations to the Annual Town Meeting, which is set to convene on May 6.

Crabtree’s $1.5 million hike in the School Department budget is triple the increase he recommended for school spending last year. He also noted in his four-page budget message to selectmen that the increase was actually understated. “The increase does not include the indirect costs paid by the Town on behalf of the School Department and included as part of the total Net School Spending (NSS) calculation required by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE),” the town manager said in his budget message.

Crabtree identified several challenges in preparing the estimates of expenditures in his recommended FY 2025 budget:

• Health Insurance – the rates have not been finalized by the provider. The town can expect that the rate will be set within the next few months. Crabtree said his office has made a conservative estimate based on the current enrollment of employees. That estimate will have to be revisited later in the budget cycle, he said.
• Trash hauling and incineration rates continue to increase. In addition, the cost of disposal of recyclable materials continues to increase and has been impacted with increased tonnage and contamination charges.
• Pension Contributions – the $5.6 million is a decrease from the amount appropriated in the 2024 Fiscal Year.
• Regional School Assessments – vocational education, including Northeast Regional Vocational Technical School and Essex North Shore Tech, is budgeted for $3.3 million based on estimates provided by DESE on the town’s minimum required contribution. The Fiscal Year 2025 estimated assessments reflect a 13.7 percent increase.

“Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School has begun construction on a MSBA approved construction project in the amount of $324,922,541,” Crabtree said in his budget message.

“Based on the most recent debt information provided by Northeast Regional, our share of the existing debt service for the Fiscal Year 20-25 is $488,201. This amount has been included in the Vocational Educational Assessment budget,” Crabtree said.

“In addition to the debt service for the construction of the facility impacting the amount appropriated for vocational education is the operational budget for a new school. A new facility with new systems and services could also impact our annual assessment for the education operational budget,” he said.

• Other insurance – the various property, liability and workers compensation insurance premium estimates have been budgeted based on an increase of about 12 percent over actual fiscal year 2024 premiums recommended by the provider. The premiums will not be finalized until later in the spring.
• Capital improvements – there are significant capital needs that the town will need to plan and identify funding sources for. These include but are not limited to local capital facility needs, infrastructures, such as roadways, public safety equipment, such as fire apparatus and other equipment that is nearing end of life and requiring expensive repairs, as well as funding the Northeast Regional Vocational School capital assessment for the MSBA School Construction Project.

Crabtree told selectmen the town was fortunate that it has not yet had “anything significant” in the way of snowfall this winter. “If we were having a legitimate winter, we’d be having $3 million for snow and ice,” Crabtree said.