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SPENCER – The incorporation of emergency medical services (EMS) into the FY27 town budget will be its largest change.
Town Administrator Jeff Bridges made that point to selectmen as the board prepares to meet with the Finance Committee this week to review budgets “department by department.”
The Spencer Rescue Squad provided Spencer with ambulance services for more than 60 years. When the nonprofit ceases operations on June 30, the town will take those responsibilities over.
Bridges noted that the Rescue Squad will donate its assets to the municipality.
The new department will include 12 paramedics and EMTs and an office manager at a cost of $1 million in salaries and wages. General expenses are estimated at $289,000 and employee benefits at $325,496.
Bridges said revenues for the department are estimated at $1.5 million, slightly more conservative than a previously mentioned $1.55 million total.
He said the pension obligations the town is required to pay for EMS employees will not kick in for another two to three years.
Bridges said that is because the employees are not on the town’s census yet and evaluations must first be done by an actuary.
Another issue is developing a billing Request For Proposals (RFP) for that department because the Spencer Rescue Squad currently uses a billing service.
Also, Bridges said, there is the matter of choosing which insurance group in the Worcester Regional Retirement System the employees will fall under.
Accordingly, that determines what deductions are appropriate to take from their paychecks, he noted.
Selectman Gary Woodbury said he had done research and found out the previously mentioned Group 1 as a possibility was wrong. Group 2 covers EMS and EMTs, while Group 4 is for police and fire and extended to firefighters who also serve in an emergency medical services capacity.
“That’s fine,” Bridges said, if the number cited in the past was wrong. He said he would verify the matter.
Next year, Bridges said, debt service on the David Prouty High School project will double, going from $1.5 million to $3 million. “That will tick the tax rate up.”
He said the required school contribution of around $568,000 exceeds the $464,354 tax revenue capability allowed by Proposition 2 ½.
New growth tax revenue is estimated at $100,000, although the administrator said the full value will be known more accurately in the fall.
Three bargaining units are currently negotiating contracts. These are the unions for Utilities & Facilities (U & F), clerical and telecommunicators/dispatchers. Once these contracts are settled, the town will “get to an outcome on the overall budget plan,” Bridges said.
“It’s a work in progress,” Woodbury said.