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Budget committee amends admin and capital recommendations, trims capital and sets totals for select board review
Summary
The budget committee adjusted the administrative budget upward to $717,186 to reflect one-time software and contract costs, cut and reprioritized several capital items (ending capital recommendation $421,293), and made a cross-department decision to remove PTO from individual operating requests and recommend a single surplus transfer to cover PTO liabilities.
The Sabattus Budget Committee spent the later portion of its session reconciling the administration and capital budgets and preparing its recommendation for the select board.
Committee members noted an administrative software payment and website costs that pushed the admin-year-to-date spend above last year’s pacing. After discussion the committee voted to amend its earlier $660,000 administrative recommendation upward to $717,186 to reflect one-time or pre-paid items (a new website contract and software renewals) that will carry into the next fiscal year. Members emphasized that they would document the specific line items and the rationale for the increase when they forward the package to the select board.
On capital, the committee reviewed a long list of requested items and made several pragmatic reductions and substitutions to lower the overall ask. Members proposed refurbishing certain transfer-station containers rather than buying new ones and trimmed other less urgent items. That process produced a recommended capital total of $421,293, which the committee approved by motion and second. Members noted some mandatory bond or lease payments cannot be changed and that available undesignated surplus will be targeted for a limited set of priorities including the $5,000 air‑tank appropriation for the fire department.
In several places the committee relied on the same PTO decision it made in the fire-department review: the committee will recommend that PTO liabilities be funded from undesignated surplus rather than being budgeted in each department’s operating lines. Members recognized that the select board retains the authority to accept, modify, or restore PTO funding within departmental requests prior to town meeting.
The committee closed by noting unresolved items to follow up with department heads (detailed expense reconciliations, vendor contract figures and the timing for capital projects) and agreed to provide annotated spreadsheets and supporting memos to the select board before the next meeting.
