The Oak Bluffs finance and advisory committee (fincom) produced a $24.7 million balanced FY2012 budget to recommend at the annual town meeting, following its regular meeting last Thursday. The budget includes a small surplus.
Their recommendation is $608,563 lower than the current working draft budget selectmen are considering. The fincom recommendation would make broad cuts in the 2012 budget, but leave the specifics to town officials.
“The reductions required in this budget are imposed on the department bottom lines, not the specific line items,” Bill McGrath wrote in a letter to The Times published this morning. “Department heads are expected to make them work and identify specific cuts.”
The largest cut the fincom will recommend would come from the police department, $88,000 from $1.7 million for police and animal control, as proposed in the selectmen’s current working draft budget.
The fincom members also voted to slice $53,500 from the Oak Bluffs School, $50,000 from the treasurer’s department, $50,000 from the information technology department, $30,000 from the wastewater department, and $28,461 from ambulance service.
Selectmen, who make the final decision on the budget to submit to the annual town meeting, expect to have a substantially complete version of their spending plan done after their March 8 meeting.
