Town of Braintree

I did some research last night on how the town spends it's money. I used the Finance Committee's handbooks of FY96 (town budget was $56,886,147)and teh FY04 book (town budget was $84,734,842). Over past nine years, the town's budget has grown 49% (almost 5.44% each year on average) or a total growth of $27,848,675. We're spending more than we can raise under Prop 2 1/2.
Where are the monies going over that same period? Here are the results:
1. Personnel Dept grew $206,692 or 209% for paper pushing! Hmm, chop there.
2. Group Health Insurance costs have risen 140% or by +$2,466,509. It's out of control everywhere, not just Braintree.
3. Health Dept: +75% or +$127,533.
4. Waste Disposal Costs: +$560,913.
5. Water & Sewer: +54% or +$3.115Million and GROWING LEAPS & LEAPS.
6. Schools: +50% or +$14.7Million growth over past 9 budgets???????Hmm?
7. Inspection: +48% or +$138,107.
8. WorkersComp: +45% or +112,381.
9. Assessors: +36% or +$50,528.
10. Selectmen's: +35% or +57,727.
11. Engineering: +32% or +$85,517.
12. Police: +30% or +$1,385,884.
13. Library: +30% or $235,138.
14. Fire: +21% or +$962,588.
15. Parks: +20% or +101,505.
16. Planning & Cons: +19% or +$40759.
17. Legal: +8% or +$20,679
18. Highway Dept actually went down over past nine years by -15% or -$275,602. No wonder why our roads are what they are!
In summary,our town budget has grown by almost $28Mil over the past nine years at a rate of nearly 5.5% a year. We can only increase taxes by 2.5%, so this research tells the story. The CASH COW IS THE SCHOOLS FOR SURE, but any dept that has exceeded the 2.5% growth each year over the last nine years needs to be attacked at Town Meeting! That involves departments listed above from Personnel through Library who are getting a bigger budget than Braintree can afford each year? Comments?

By TMM12

Nice Work But ....

You did a nice job in laying out the expenditures. How does the revenue by source compare over the same period of time. I think that would enhance the picture just a bit.

By John Q

good post excellant info.

the tale is told, the town is out of control and we need new help at the top!!

lets vote into office some talented fiscal restraint types who will not bow down to the
Braintree pride override group crap. apparently their only source of pride is to spend more
town monies than we take in, what a way to operate.

the schools have increased by 14+million and not one dime on structures. These school teachers are really well paid in fact over well paid.

We the taxpayers own this town fiscally and need to regain control of the budget, now is the time to make our voices heard, enough is enough ,recall the selectmen who advocate an override to finance more money to our bloated school dept. salaries .

Fincom needs to be cleaned out, too many people are in conflict of interest in favor of the schools
.
It has become clear that we have a real problem with the schools taking over the town budget
for its own use in raises.

you do such good work

can you try and break out the growth of the school spending, all of it for say the past 20 yrs? also if possible
the town's expenses as grown over the same period. the time frame isn't cast in stone, you have covered the past nine years nicely, if possible include this data please. I am interested in how long it will take for the school systems in this state to bankrupt the towns tax base and consume every living thing in sight.
Schools: +50% or +$14.7Million growth over past 9 budgets???????Hmm?
Is the total current school budget 44.7 million? what is the current school budget?
What is the current school budget as a percentage of town revenues?

You are an excellent source of this data if possible put it in a format that a non bean counter can understand, thanks for the excellent post and hopefully more to come!!!