ROCKPORT — Committing to their intention made last March to help craft a leaner municipal budget than the current version, the Rockport Budget Committee plans to meet Sept. 8 with the Select Board to begin the process.

The Select Board meets this evening at 6 p.m. and its agenda includes a discussion concerning the Budget Committee's involvement.

"Following the Board’s adoption of their goals (and the Town Manager’s goals) at its last meeting, the Select Board committed to a schedule to address concerns raised through the budget approval process from last spring," wrote Town Manager Jon Duke, in his Sept. 8 premeeting memo to the Select Board. "To begin that process the Board will need to appoint one of its members to join a member of the Budget Committee (to be appointed) to serve on an ad hoc committee with staff to explore options available to the Town in providing benefits to its employees, including exploring 'shopping' our health insurance.

"Further, the Board has tasked staff with beginning its capital improvement and budget process early to provide more opportunity to examine and improve outcomes. This effort will be substantial in addition to the existing workload on the table in each town department, but this priority has been made clear and all efforts are underway to provide data and metrics to explore new methods of operation or re-examine current operations."

The Budget Committee had met  Aug. 12 for 2.5 hours, reflecting on the town's increase in expenditures and its resulting effect on property tax bills. They also talked about inflation rates, rising healthcare costs, controlling costs, and regionalizing municipal services with adjacent municipalities. Ultimately, they voted 5 to 2 to set a goal of limiting the 2026-2027 budget growth to one percent over the current budget.

The members reviewed a letter received from citizens Charlton Ames, a former Select Board member, and Jan Rosenbaum, a Planning Board member, who had, earlier in the spring, made several recommendations to the Budget Committee, Select Board and town staff to improve the municipal budget process. The letter had proposed methods to include more citizens and staff in the process of crafting a town budget to, "improve the buy-in."

This year, Rockport's 2025-2026 municipal budget increased 12.5 percent over last year's budget to $13 million, and while it was approved at the June Town Meeting polls, the margin of approval was slim, with 316 citizens voting in favor of the 2025-2026 budget and 279 opposed, a difference of 37 votes.

Budget Committee member Doug Cole said at the Aug. 12 Budget Committee meeting, "A good friend told me a long time ago that to get things done in a committee you make a motion, so I make a motion that our short term goal is to limit this next budget to one percent."

There were dissenting votes from longtime Budget Committee members Geoffrey Parker and Helen Shaw, who questioned the feasibility of limiting expenditures to such an increase. Parker described it as a potentially, "monstrous thing to live under," which had been attempted more than eight years ago by the town when the Select Board requested scenarios of 0, 2 and 4 percent budget increases.

"The monstrous thing to live under is that kids cannot afford houses in this town," said Budget Committee member Stephen Bowen. "It is unaffordable except for the very rich. And it is continuing unless we do something about it. It is out of control. I agree. One percent is hard. There is no question. But we are setting a goal and we want to say to Jon [Duke, Rockport Town Manager] that we are deadly serious about getting this budget under control."

The conversations during the Aug. 12 Budget Committee meeting illuminated incongruities and economic ripple effects from current demographic trends of the Midcoast: declining school enrollments, which has been attributed to both a decrease in the birth rate as well as lack of affordable and workforce housing in Camden and Rockport. There was mention of possible looming federal education cuts. There was also an acknowledgement from one Budget Committee member that being in a wealthy community benefitted his own business, but at the same time, the risk of losing younger families who cannot afford to live in Rockport has widened.

"My taxes for my house are more than my mortgage," said on committee member. "At some point, we need to tell the town [that] the town employees need to go without, so that [instead of] a new truck every other year, maybe you get one every five years. Instead of mowing the lawns every seven days, mow them every 10. There's got to be compromise."

The Budget Committee agreed it wanted to effect change, but stipulated that it wanted to set a goal of limiting the budget increase to 1 percent, not to confine that growth conclusively to 1 percent.

"I don't think for a minute that we are going to do it [limit the budget increase to 1 percent]," said Cole. "But, it sends the message and we will see where it goes."

"I, for the record, think we can do it," said Budget Committee Vice Chair Walker Angell, Jr. "I do not think it is all that hard, necessarily. It is going to require rethinking some things."

Additionally, the Budget Committee set as a short term goals to address healthcare and health insurance costs, obtain Emergency Health Services financials, the inclusion of a capital improvement plan with the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee and contacting the press and work for public engagement.

The committee also promoted involving town employees more in the budget crafting process; as well as conducting a spending survey, including a look at other municipalities and their spending habit; a continuation of setting targets; and exploring regionalization for saving on costs.

At its August 18 meeting, the Select Board likewise discussed the budget process, and set its 2025-2026 goals, as well as those of the Town Manager. They follow:

TOWN MANAGER GOALS (2025-26)

1. Budget process overhaul

a. Benefits ad hoc committee with all stakeholders (staff, unions, SB, Budget Committee reps)

b. Capital planning in October

c. Budget forecast in October

d. Revise budget document with Dept Head involvement in goal/metrics

2. Comp Plan implementation with Task Force formation

3. Rockland WW agreement

4. Building assessment project

5. Stream crossings

6. Goose River Bridge replacement/repair

7. Harbor Strategic Plan implementation

8. Professional Development, broaden knowledge base

9. EMS Evaluation: October update, expand revenue options and measurement metrics

10. Rockport Common construction

SELECT BOARD GOALS (2025-26)

1. Support Town Manager goals

2. Other items arising out of budget process:

a. Evaluate Town engineering and review wastewater O&M agreement.

b. Work with Town Manager to evaluate efficiency in existing Town staff; look for ways to

expand roles of staff. One area to explore opportunities among staff is communication

expertise and community outreach.

c. Mowing costs. Evaluate pros and cons of outside contractor and in-house.

d. Cemetery lot cost evaluation; resident/nonresident. Ongoing

e. Columbarium donation evaluation.

f. Evaluate use of online tools and drop boxes to reduce town clerk staff time.

g. Evaluate road acceptance policy and impact on road miles Town is responsible for. Obtain

price per mile for paving (10 year depreciation on paving/snowplow)

3. Develop program that encourages staff to find cost savings, efficiencies. Consider how to

incentivize staff; certificate?

4. 6. Long range planning, forecasting for future years so budget benefits from long term outlook

5. Wastewater strategic planning

Form an Opera House Foundation with interested residents/stakeholders (after building

evaluation).

7. Encourage further expansion of fiber optic service.