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Photo Mary Ann Bragg
A new sign for Seashore Point in Provincetown, a senior housing and medical complex planned for the Cape End Manor nursing home site on Alden Street.
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Override shift
Manor ’06 override would eliminate need in ’07
By Mary Ann Bragg
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — The Board of Selectmen will be asked this week, for the first time in the town’s history, to place a Proposition 2 1/2 override question on the annual town election ballot.
The surprise is not that an override is on the horizon. The topic has been in the air for several weeks. The surprise is that it will be for the current fiscal year, rather than for next fiscal year. As it stands now, according to Town Hall paperwork, the town needs a $350,000 override just to make it through June 30.
And that override comes with an additional twist: if the money is approved for the current year, then roughly that same amount is available for spending in future years.
Thus, at least for the moment, an override now would eliminate the need for an override next year, according to material to be considered by the selectmen on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
The town of Provincetown is the only town on Cape Cod to have avoided an override since the passage of a state law, known as Prop 2 1/2, in 1980. That law requires ballot approval for property tax increases beyond prescribed limits.
The town’s annual election is on May 2.
At the heart of the matter in Provincetown is the town’s Cape End Manor nursing home, according to Town Manager Keith Bergman, where unexpected spending and a shortfall in income have occurred.
“It always costs us more to run the Manor than we start out with,” Bergman said this week. “Our history has been that unexpected expenses arise. We've had equipment breakdowns that have had to be replaced. We've had building repairs that we have to cover. We've had greater expenses from a higher census: 41.5 residents actual vs. 36 budgeted. We've been delighted with this higher census for the sake of the facility's continued operation, but the increased revenues associated with that additional spending won't all be in the door by June 30th, the end of the fiscal year.”
The Manor land and operations are to be transferred to New England Deaconess Association as of July 1, and that nonprofit is scheduled to build an expanded nursing care and senior housing complex on Alden Street in the next three years. The agreement with the town is based on the assumption that Deaconess can obtain long-term financing for the project.
To cover spending at the Manor through the end of June, though, the town needs $550,000, of which $350,000 must be accommodated through a Prop 2 1/2 override, according to Town Hall calculations.
An extra $400,000 in exit costs at the Manor will be needed next fiscal year as well, Bergman said.
The selectmen will be asked on Wednesday to approve both a ballot question for the Manor override and a matching warrant article for the Special Town Meeting in April. That article will have a caveat that requires a positive ballot vote for the extra $350,000 to be spent in the current year. (If the ballot vote fails, then the town would be required to pay in the next fiscal year for the continued operation of the Manor through June 30.)
Of note, only a simple majority is needed on a ballot to pass an override question. Also, according to Bergman, money approved in an override would only be earmarked for Cape End Manor expenses through June 30 and could be spent for other purposes in future years.
(In Prop 2 1/2 parlance, an “override” is a permanent addition of money to a town’s property tax spending limits and an “exclusion” is a one-time spending allowance. In Bergman’s paperwork there was no mention of an exclusion for Manor spending.)
This week Finance Committee chair Ruth Gilbert said that while Bergman told her personally about the potential for the override, her board would not be discussing it until next week.
As for the next fiscal year, Bergman said in his notes for the selectmen that the $350,000 override for the current fiscal year would carry through to support level-funded budgets in the next year.
Bergman made that statement based on the following assumptions for next year: $200,000 will be needed for potential building repairs to the Cape End Manor; $250,000 will be needed to fund the new police union collective bargaining agreement; a reduction of $100,000 will occur in town employee and retiree health insurance costs due to voluntary switches to lower-cost plans; and at least $50,000 would be sought from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to pay for affordable housing tax exemptions. (The use of the trust fund money would require approval by the Provincetown Housing Authority.)
Also this week the selectmen will discuss three budget-cutting scenarios for next fiscal year in executive session.
(See this week’s print edition for a story on an override for the school budget.)
mabragg@provincetownbanner.com
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Putting the pieces together
In the News
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Feb 23rd, 2006