Barre Finance Committee Reviews Police Pay Spike, School Assessment at Budget Session

BARRE -- April 25, 2018, Barre Finance Committee reviews a 24 percent police salary spike and a $5.5 million school assessment at April budget session. Finance Committee Chair Zachary Macutkiewicz led a working session Wednesday in which the police chief presented a sworn salary request of $630,013.49 for fiscal year 2019, driven by a new contract that compresses the path to top pay from more than 20 years down to roughly seven. A Quabbin Regional School District administrator reported Barre's preliminary district assessment at $5.5 million, a 4.48 percent increase, with the caveat that nearly $100,000 in lost state transportation reimbursements could shift the final number once the House Ways and Means budget is released. Committee members also raised unresolved questions about a water enterprise fund that showed $633,000 in receipts against $376,000 in expenses in fiscal year 2017, and debated, without resolution, a proposal to move police uniform and academy tuition costs into a separate reserve fund. No formal votes were taken.