The Select Board will be proposing a later due date, Feb. 28, for the town budget at the Spring Town Meeting on Monday, April 22.

The budget is currently due on Jan. 25, but Board members, Town Administrator Derek Sullivan as well as the the Finance, Capital Planning and School committees want a date that will allow for a more informed budget. 

The later budget date allows the town time to get the state's budget figures and incorporate them into the town budget. The state’s preliminary budget was not released for the first time until late January and last year’s finalized budget was not received until September. 

Sullivan said the town’s budget is 25% reliant on state aid and $6 million in assessments. In addition, one of the budget’s “big drivers” is Upper Cape Technical Regional School, which is also reliant on state funding. 

“Our goal here is to have a substantially complete budget for everyone to be put out there,” he said, adding how often the town will have to release multiple versions due to various tweaks to line items.

“You give a budget, you present it and it's back based on your best estimates and then things just keep on changing,” Sullivan said.

Finance Committee Chair Norma Scogin had the opportunity to speak at the meeting in favor of pushing the date back. 

“We need to make the job a little easier and not so stressful so that we can make sure that we have a proper budget that depicts everything that the town needs,” Scogin said. 

She added it is “unnecessary” to spend time and energy working on a budget that will more than likely change.

“Mr. Sullivan is an incredibly hardworking employee of this town and I really appreciate all of his effort, but he does not see the future,” she said. “He comes close, but does not quite see the future.”

Select Board members agreed with these sentiments. The Board voted 3-0 in favor of drafting a Town Meeting request for the date be moved to Feb. 28 in the town’s charter, with Select Board member Alan Slavin abstaining, stating the date should be later.

Select Board member Ronald Besse said, “It's definitely hard to plan if you don't kind of know where some of your funds are coming from and exactly how much money you're getting.”