May 25, 2005
A proposal read by Fred Kern for a Joint Town Meeting, pursuant to Mass General Laws Chapter 71 Section 16B was approved by a 6 to 1 vote last night. Based on an opinion rendered be School Consel that Bridgewater by not discussing budgets at the May 9th Town Meeting was the same as a rejection of the B-R budget proposal, allowed the B-R School District to move onto step two - recertifying the budget. Bridgewater-Raynham then went even further by setting the date for the third step - the Joint Town Meeting.
A very interesting interpretation of the law, and 'confusing' at best. Consel was not present last night at the School Committee Meeting to explain or provide substantiation for this interpretation of law. I was present at the May 9th Town Meeting, and there was never a vote on budgets nor were budgets even discussed.
This was all background to Fred Kern reading a fax from Gordon Luciano with the text for the motions to have a Joint Town Meeting. A simplified timeline follows:
(a) Bridgewater Town Meeting, when it reopens from Recess on June 13th will determine an amount to provide to Bridgewater-Raynham for the schools. The final number will most likely be between $14.6M and $15.6M.
(b) Being less than the total requested amount of about $17.6M, B-R will go forward with the scheduled Joint Town Meeting.
(c) June 22nd Joint Town Meeting at B-R High will have an overflow crowd. The one article will be should B-R operate with a $49.5M budget.
(d-1) Article defeated: B-R is back to the previously approved funding level per Town Meetings. (See below for notations on this outcome.}
(d-2) Article passes: Raynham Town Meeting has already approved a budget to fund at this level, therefore no action should be required. Bridgewater will be in a $2-3 million structural deficit.
(e) Bridgewater Board of Selectmen will need to bring forward a proposal or proposals for the deficit. The Joint Town Meeting vote binds the Town to a specific expense amount. Therefore, either an Operational Prop 2 1/2 Override will be needed or a severe cut will be needed to the rest of Bridgewater government functions and services. There are probably some base thresholds that must be maintained in certain areas for Fire, Police and municipal functions (although there would inevitably be reductions there), the major funding reductions would have to come from other areas of the Town budget at the Senior Center, Recreation and Library.
(f) In this situation, an override vote would be a difficult choice for Bridgewater residents. Because an override vote failure would require the dramatic loss of town services
{Note: the following text was added 05/26/2005 - after more time to research and obtain actual text.}
If the Joint Town Meeting does not approve the proposal, then it appears to become an issue for the State Dept of Education. MGL ch71 s16B: If, after submission of the budget, no agreement is reached as to a budget for the regional school district, the district shall notify the Department of Education of a lack of a budget and the commissioner, or his designee, shall certify an amount sufficient for the operation of the district and order the appropriation thereof in an amount not less than 1/12 of the total budget approved by the region in the most recent fiscal year. Similar sums shall be certified and appropriated for each successive month to insure the continued provision of services by the district until such time as a budget is adopted and approved by the regional committee and member towns in the manner otherwise provided herein. In the event a budget is not adopted by December first in any year, the department shall assume operation of the district and funds for same shall be deducted from local aid distributed to member towns.
So, lack of agreement would appear to mean that the State Dept of Education would set the finances. And, if the situation is not resolved by December 1, then the Dept of Education would take over the school system.
Also of note from MGL ch71 s16B: For the purposes of this section, a vote or votes by a local appropriating authority to appropriate the municipality's apportioned share of the regional school district budget shall constitute approval of the annual regional school district budget; provided, however, that any municipality's apportioned share may not be increased in the same fiscal year without approval of the local appropriating authority.
This section appears to back up my contention that Bridgewater has not yet rejected the B-R budget. If approval is by a vote, then denial would reasonably be expected to mean a vote of NO.
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
East Bridgewater
West Bridgewater
Massachusetts
Legislation & Politics
USA
Legislation & Politics
World
Education
Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
Massachusetts
USA
Archives (past stories)
Opinion/Analysis
Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
