By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—The Brandon Budget Committee, comprising the Selectboard, the Town Manager, and six citizens, met on Monday evening for one of four workshops scheduled in November and December. The first workshop was held on Wednesday, November 8. All budget meetings are open to the public.
The purpose of the workshops is to help finetune the budget that the Selectboard will ultimately put before the citizens of Brandon at Town Meeting in March 2024 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025, which will begin on July 1, 2024 and end on June 30, 2025. The Committee is advisory only; the final proposal will be approved by the Selectboard in one of its regularly scheduled meetings.
The budget for the current Fiscal Year (2023-2024) is $3,346,150. If the proposed budget for 2024-2025 is approved as it stands now, there will be a 6% increase to $3,543,035, of which $3,018,365 would be raised by municipal taxes. Again, this budget is a proposal that must ultimately be approved by both the Selectboard and the voters of Brandon.
The focus of the Monday workshop was on the Brandon Recreation Department and the Highway and Buildings & Grounds Departments.
Rec Director Bill Moore was on hand to present his department’s budget and to answer questions from the Committee.
The Rec Department’s budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 was $177,780, against projected revenues of $69,750. The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 is $189,880, a 6.81% increase, against projected revenues of $76,500. The Rec Department brings in revenue from program fees and events, such as Brandon Carnival. The department’s revenue, however, does not cover all of the department’s expenses.
Mr. Moore compared his department’s budget to those of peer towns in Vermont: Pittsford ($228,135), Bristol ($349,269), and Windsor ($287,294).
“We’re a pretty lean rec department,” said Moore, noting that Brandon’s rec budget was the lowest of the four towns. “We’re not extravagant. We offer a lot for the size of our town. We have special events and sports for less than Bristol’s budget.” Other towns, such as Bristol, also have facilities (e.g., pools, gyms, and studio space) that Brandon does not offer. Bristol does not offer youth sports through its rec department.
The bulk of the discussion regarding the rec department revolved around the fact that roughly half of all the department’s unique users from February 2020 to November 2023 were from towns other than Brandon. Most of the non-Brandon users were from neighboring communities, such as Pittsford, Whiting, Rutland, Leicester, Middlebury, Proctor, and Sudbury. These non-residents come to Brandon to take advantage of rec programs that aren’t offered in their hometowns.
Town Manager Seth Hopkins remarked that certain programs, particularly youth sports, wouldn’t have enough participants if they were limited to Brandon residents.
Non-resident users pay higher program fees than resident users but the question that seemed to vex the Committee was exactly how much more they should be paying. The Committee recognized the importance of drawing outside users to Brandon but also felt that non-resident users should shoulder more of the department’s expenses.
Selectboard Chair Tracy Wyman asked whether it would be possible to charge towns for the use of Brandon Rec Programs. Mr. Moore replied that the voters of those towns would have to approve appropriations for the purpose. Mr. Hopkins cautioned against asking small communities with “carefully balanced budgets” to find extra money for Brandon Rec.
It was also suggested that the surcharge paid by non-residents might be raised to a flat 20% above the resident rate.
Committee members noted that Brandon’s rec department made Brandon an attractive place to live and helped buoy the town’s economy.
“The rec department really is an economic development program,” said Mr. Hopkins.
The Committee then turned its attention to the Highway Department.
The Highway Department’s budget for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 was $824,520 and the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 is $881,580, a difference of $57,060 or 6.9%.
The department currently has 4 full-time crew members with no plans to hire additional workers. Highway Foreman Shawn Erickson is slated to retire in February and be replaced by Jeremy Disorda, who is currently being trained for the position.
Town Bookkeeper Jackie Savela noted that health insurance costs have increased. And the town has purchased a $2,000 annual subscription to GovPilot management software, which will help the town keep track of the value of the labor and equipment used in FEMA-reimbursable projects.
It was also noted that several line items, such as guardrails, had been budgeted for in previous years with no record of any money having been spent on those items. Ms. Savela suggested that the money may have been spent but categorized inaccurately when logged by the department.
Board members also expressed concern about items that appear as expenditures in the budget but for which no money has been earmarked, such as asphalt for paving.
The reason for these discrepancies is that the money for the expenditures comes from sources other than municipal taxes, such as the 1% Local Option Tax or ARPA funds. The expenditures must be accounted for, but the budget is meant to determine how much money must be raised by municipal taxes and not how much money the town will ultimately spend.
Buildings & Grounds, which currently has only 1 employee, envisions a Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget of $259,430, an increase of $33,640 or 14%. Much of the increase in the department’s budget stems from a recent mandate from the state to test the town landfill for PFAS or toxic “forever chemicals.”
The Committee also discussed the possibility of hiring a part-time gardener at $13,000 per year to help with the proliferation of public gardens around town, including the bioswales on Park and Pearl Streets, which have been the subject of much concern among the Selectboard recently.
