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Sabattus budget committee revises fire budget, recommends moving PTO funding to surplus
Summary
After a detailed line-by-line review, the Sabattus budget committee recalculated the fire department request upward for corrected payroll items, recommended a capital appropriation for replacement air-tanks, and agreed to recommend that PTO liabilities be funded from undesignated surplus rather than by raising departmental operating requests.
The Sabattus Budget Committee completed a detailed review of the fire department’s proposed FY27 operating budget and approved a set of technical adjustments, a small capital recommendation and a policy shift for how paid-time-off (PTO) liability will be funded.
Committee members began with the department’s original submitted request of $909,900 and worked through an attached spreadsheet that identified several corrections. Line-item updates included a payroll recalculation that raised retirement from about $31,000 to $56,354, corrections to payroll-tax lines (including Medicare), and the addition of an $11,000 overtime estimate moved into the part-time wages line. The presenter summarized the corrected total at roughly $956,068 before the committee addressed PTO treatment.
In discussion, members agreed that fully funding accrued PTO from departmental operating requests both inflates individual department totals and creates rollover accounting complexity. The committee voted to recommend that the town fund PTO liabilities from undesignated surplus (a separate transfer) rather than increasing each department’s operating appropriation. That approach reduces the immediate fire-department operating request to approximately $932,901 in the committee’s recommendation while leaving the select board and town meeting the option to restore or modify PTO funding treatment.
The committee also identified immediate operating and capital needs within the fire budget. Safety equipment and turnout-gear math showed roughly $5,630 per full kit; members noted that complete SCBA (air-pack) replacements are costly (single full setups were discussed near $9,000) and therefore treated as capital. To partially address an urgent equipment gap, the committee recommended appropriating $5,000 from undesignated surplus for replacement air tanks/bottles (used or reconditioned) so the department can acquire as many bottles as that appropriation will buy.
Other line-item decisions included: budgeting five pre-employment physicals at roughly $400 each, combining certain training lines between EMS and fire to simplify administration, modest increases to utility and fuel lines (the committee proposed $12,000 for fuel based on recent spending patterns), and a modest upward adjustment to computer/technology maintenance to reflect recurring internet and software needs. The committee intentionally deferred larger building projects tied to a pending $2 million central‑station grant until concrete plans and cost estimates were available.
The committee chair and members noted the meeting included a tense exchange earlier about prior accusations and whether off-agenda personal disputes had affected prior votes; members agreed to address personnel/dispute follow-ups after completing budget work to avoid further disruption.
The committee will forward its recommended budget package — including the fire budget with the PTO‑treatment recommendation and the $5,000 capital appropriation for air-tank bottles — to the select board with explanatory notes on the adjustments and the spreadsheet corrections. The select board may accept, amend or reinstate PTO funding within department requests at its discretion.
