Who is responsible for providing financial guidance as to what Acton can afford during Acton?s budget process? That discussion is missing during Acton?s budget debates. Absent a clear long term financial plan and clear financial guidance, there is little reason to expect less than tax to the max increases for the forseeable future. Also, Acton?s tax burden, already one of the highest in Massachusetts, will continue to increase.

Contrast this with the process in Boxboro where FinCom unveils the budget and provides the financial guidance for the town, as reported in the May 8th Beacon. The Board of Selectmen and School Committees requested an approximate 5.0% budget increase, but FinCom allowed a 0.7% budget increase. They stated that the FinCom budget is prudent for a declining economy.

Acton?s FinCom does not provide this corresponding financial guidance and defers these responsibilities to other boards. As a result it is not clear where that responsibility should reside in Acton, other than with FinCom.

At present there is no brake on Acton?s budget increases except Proposition 2 ? and Town Meeting (TM) since FinCom does not take that responsibility. TM does not slow down spending increases for many reasons, not the least of which is that only about 300 voters at TM decide the budget for the entire 13,100 voters of Acton. Thus a small advocacy group is able to pass a ?Tax to the Max? budget at TM where more voters would be less likely to do so on an override ballot.

The Board of Selectmen (BOS) is the advocate for improving town services and is always being pressured to increase budgets by citizens asking for more services. The BOS does not presently provide financial guidance for the entire town. The BOS is only indirectly involved in the affairs of the schools, does not review their budgets, so it is not clear how it could provide financial guidance there if they wanted to.

The School Committees (SC) is the advocate for improving schools and is always being pressured to increase budgets by citizens and stff asking for more programs. Acton schools are perhaps the best in the state, and the SC should advocate to keep them so.

The Acton Leadership Group (ALG) does not provide financial guidance as to what Acton can afford. The ALG has ten members, of which eight are advocates for increasing taxing and spending in order to increase budgets. The ALG has two members each of the BOS and the SC, both advocating increases in those budgets. The ALG also has two school employees and two town employees, again advocating increases in budgets. Finally, ALG has two FinCom members, the only two members without a direct incentive to advocate increased budgets.

Absent any financial guidance to the contrary, in the budget cycle for 2009 ALG set the tax revenue increase in September with its own guidance of ?Tax to the Max.? From that time forward the budgets were slightly adjusted but remained set at that level with no public discussion. ALG carefully set the budgets to the maximum allowed without an override.

FinCom could provide budget guidance, but chooses not to. FinCom reviews all budgets, but does not act to challenge and reduce budget requests. One FinCom member stated that he did not agree that budgets should increase so much, but he would vote in favor of that increase and let TM decide.

Who is responsible for providing financial guidance as to what Acton can afford during Acton?s budget process? This year the BOS and SC requested a total 6.6% budget expansion to add 28 new employees, and a 4.1% tax increase to fund it, and FinCom agreed with them all. Contrast that to Boxboro where Boxboro?s FinCom reduced requests from 5.0% to 0.7%.

Clint Seward is an Acton citizen of more than twenty years and can be reached at cseward@verizon.net.

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