BRATTLEBORO-It's been a month of lengthy, intense Selectboard meetings since Representative Town Meeting (RTM) rejected the proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget on March 22.
The strain has showed.
RTM voters rejected a municipal budget that would represent a 12% increase in town taxes, or an overall 6.2% increase in Brattleboro property owners' total tax burden, if you factor in the school district budget.
With three newly elected board members whom many voted into office to bring new voices and fresh eyes to the budget process, the Selectboard is working to get a new budget approved before the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.
Before the board met April 24, the total expenditure in the draft revised budget stood at $25,610,861, with a property tax levy needed to structurally balance the budget of $20,259,650.
That's $418,872 more than the budget that went to March Representative Town Meeting - and failed.
The board has taken hours over the past several weeks to engage in a task with deeply challenging parameters: What budget will voters actually support? How will lacks in any area where cuts are made be covered?
None of these questions have actually been answered, but the board has spent time discussing whether to initiate cat licensing to provide a bit of income, ultimately rejecting the idea by a board vote of 3-2.
Overall, sensitive areas such as police, the library, and public works were on the table, then off. Then sometimes on again.
At one point in the discussions, McLoughlin said of budget cuts, "It's all over the place."
"I think maybe you're the only voice still looking at the police department," she said to Evans-Frantz, noting that the board had given recommendations to Town Manager John Potter to draw up a new draft.
"Every department has contributed here," added Potter, saying all departments were giving up something to help lower the budge bottom line.
Pressure, and then some
On Tuesday, April 22, the conversation into a fifth hour, an exchange between board members Peter Case and Isaac Evans-Frantz resulted in Evans-Frantz leaving the table and a five-minute recess.
Evans-Frantz asked Case to "lower the tone a little bit" during a discussion of potential police department savings. Case had interrupted to say that if Evans-Frantz wanted to move to cut something, he ought to do so.
Saying Evans-Frantz's point was taking on a circular aspect, Case said, "Time is precious."
Asked to lower his tone a second time, Case replied, "Don't do that. We are sitting here; we're having this conversation."
Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin made an attempt to defuse the situation, saying, "OK, people." But as Evans-Frantz walked off, he said, "I will not be spoken to like that," to which Case replied, "Neither will I."
After a short recess, the board voted to instruct Potter that no service reductions be incorporated in the public safety area and to investigate the potential savings of adding firefighters to offset overtime.
Evans-Frantz was the sole "no" vote.
At the board's April 24 meeting, it was McLoughlin who caught the heat after asking Brattleboro Union High School student Rei Carpenter-Ranquist, advocating for the library, to "just chill."
Social media jumped to Carpenter-Ranquist's defense, as did mother Bethany Ranquist, phoning in her displeasure during the board's last meeting.
McLoughlin apologized, saying she did not intend to dismiss the comment. But she also set off a spark in an earlier meeting when she likened board member Oscar Heller's advocacy for a hiring freeze as something Elon Musk might come up with, to which Heller took exception.
Building reserves for the future
Despite challenges of working together for a first time under pressure-cooker circumstances, the board was able to agree to a few basics. They include agreement to slowly rebuild the emergency reserve fund, whether from cuts or other revenue.
To that end, the board voted to confirm a Selectboard policy of establishing a reserve fund that will ultimately reserve 10% of the overall annual budget.
The board plans to achieve that goal by increasing the amount incrementally over 10 to 15 years, starting with a nominal amount of perhaps $10,000 that would be added to the emergency fund in the FY26 budget proposal.
The notion floated briefly of setting a FY27 tax increase goal also received pushback.
Resident Susan Belleville said doing so would be "incredibly unfair" without fully examining all the options and/or feedback and consequences of any recommendation.
"You're so dedicated to putting money in a savings account and sacrificing security and the safety action plan that will benefit the whole community," Belleville told the board, adding that "those kinds of budgetary conversations drive me insane."
"I'm so frustrated with some of this conversation because you've lost the big picture," she said. "Take a look again."
Among other topics that have driven the marathon meetings was what a "structurally balanced budget" means. That discussion came in response to the RTM cry that the current budget was not so and used emergency money for non-emergency expenses.
The board did approve developing a five-year financial plan with a 25-year capital equipment replacement schedule.
The town has, in the past, maintained a capital plan. The RTM Finance Committee this year recommended doing so again, calling the need to do so "urgent."
Several board newcomers advocated a longer budgeting process and department-by-department public sessions to at least provide more transparency and opportunities for folks to ask questions in addition to a pledge to much more closely examine everything in drafting the FY27 budget.
"You have to decide at some point, is the tail wagging the dog," said McLoughlin during one discussion. "Our responsibility to the town is not just to the budget, it's to the needs of the community. I think we can walk and chew gum [and] do the work of the town."
One seriously contentious topic of conversation was the hiring freeze first advocated by Heller, notably by attrition.
Case is not a fan, saying not hiring for an open position - of which the town has two - removes the salary expense but retains the workload.
Potter maintained that a freeze should be used perhaps to manage spending but not to develop a budget - and that to do so would be "obviating my role as appointing authority."
Upcoming budget meetings
A fifth meeting to review the proposed redrafted budget that was set for Tuesday, April 29 has been postponed to Thursday, May 1.
The board also set a Special Representative Town Meeting date of Tuesday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of Brattleboro Union High School, 131 Fairground Rd.
An information session is tentatively planned for Wednesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. District Caucuses will begin before the meeting.
Of the draft budget Potter will bring to the board on May 1, "we'll see if we have the stomach for it," said McLoughlin.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.