Barre Finance Committee Opens FY21 Budget Season With No Formal Votes

BARRE -- January 16, 2020, Barre's Finance Committee opened its FY21 budget season with a sweeping preliminary review but no binding votes at its January 16 meeting. A town budget presenter walked the committee through departmental requests totaling roughly $70,000 over prior-year appropriations, excluding school, insurance, and retirement figures that remain unresolved, and presented a draft capital improvement plan that included $15,000 for a digital records system, $40,000 for a fire station feasibility study, and a framework for an eventual USDA-financed fire station construction project estimated at up to $8 million and targeted for FY27. The committee was cautioned against projecting any marijuana cultivation tax revenue in FY21, as the town's host community agreements carry a 14-month lag on the 3 percent cultivation tax and the five-year agreement terms had not yet formally begun. A $30,000 wage reserve line was built into the Select Board budget to cover upcoming union negotiations with police, DPW, and the town administrator, with the presenter noting that town meeting must vote to fund the first year of any settled contract.