Dwindling crowd approves $51M budget
By ANIKA CLARK
aclark@s-t.com
May 26, 2011 12:06 AM

WAREHAM — Wareham voters approved a $51.8 million budget Tuesday night, despite lacking a quorum for big-ticket fiscal items.

At 90-58, the vote was two shy of the 150-member quorum. But Moderator Claire Smith said it stood because, after 161 people continued the previous night's budget discussion over an hour earlier, no one called for another quorum count until after the vote had been tallied.

The bulk of the debate centered on the budget's reliance on a health insurance premium holiday, in fiscal 2012, as a seven-figure financial plug. The holiday, according to Town Administrator Mark Andrews, would last from four to six weeks and would save the town nearly $1.5 million.

Wareham is self-insured, so when premiums exceed the actual cost of care, the money is saved in a health care trust fund. That fund is managed by the town, which Andrews said carries the risk.

"The town has every right to do this," according to Andrews, citing feedback from the state Department of Revenue. A fact sheet provided to Town Meeting voters indicates that even after the $1,477,456 to be used during the holiday is applied to the fiscal 2012 budget and about $945,000 in trust money is held as an estimated three-month buffer, another $905,000 would remain in the trust. "This would buy us a year to be intentional about cuts," said proponent Selectman Ellen Begley.

Bob Brousseau warned of a slippery slope. The money has been "set aside for employee benefits and health care," Brousseau said. "Once you do this, the horse is out of the stable."

Selectman Cara Winslow similarly said she was worried about precedent and said the town needs to deal with underlying budget issues that aren't going away.

"At some point, we have got to be realistic about what we're faced with," she said at a meeting of the Board of Selectmen earlier Tuesday night. While the town has found ways to shore up its budget before, "the end of that road is coming and we're at the edge of a cliff."

Bruce Sauvageau said he thinks turning to the health care trust fund would be unethical. "We are robbing Peter to pay for Paul," he said.

Tom Monaghan took a different tack. "Peter's bleeding. Paul still has his triage," Monaghan said. "The horse needs to come out of the stable and get some exercise."

As passed, the budget article calls for raising and appropriating $31.5 million and transferring $14.5 million from cherry sheet aid and offsets, $5.5 million from estimated local receipts and reimbursements and $182,600 from available funds. An additional $152,000 would be transferred from receipts from the sale of real estate to debt and interest.

Town meeting continues next Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Wareham High School auditorium.