DALTON, Mass. — The Finance Committee on Wednesday night began its review of the proposed fiscal 2023 spending plan and agreed that salary increases were justified for many positions.

The town had commissioned a study on pay for town employees last fall with the goal to develop a pay classification system based on comparative analysis and best practices for recruitment and retention.

"It pretty much reflects the paid study that was done," said Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson. "And I think you'll find that there are a lot of salary increases this year because of the pay classification study. So those are the main changes to this budget."

Departments reviewed on Wednesday included the town planner, tax collector, building department, postage and commissions.

The town collector's budget is anticipated to increase 5.88 percent, from $105,326 this year to $111,520. The increase is largely in salaries, which will rise from $92,061 to $98,255 at the tax collector and assistant move up a step on July 1. Expenses are unchanged.

The town planner has requested a budget of $52,644, up 3.79 percent from this year, with the only increase in bringing the salary line to $50,544. The expense budget will not change.

The Building Department also proposed an increase in its salaries line of $41,112, from $40,214 this a 2.23 percent change from the previous year. There is no request for an increase in expenses leaving it at $6,730 and bringing the total budget for 2023 to $47,842.

The Traffic Commission budget request is the same as this year's at $1,500.

Dalton's postage budget is proposed to rise 9.85 percent to account for the increase in postage demand because of COVID-19, the Town Hall's closure for the public, and the continuing higher postage cost, which would bring that total budget to $19,636 from $17,875 this year,

"It's not a huge increase, but it does reflect both an expected increase in postage costs and allowing for the possibility that there would be more more mailings to be done instead of handing things out to people in person due to COVID," said Hutcheson.

The Emergency Management Department requested a minor stipend of 2 percent, from $6,000 to $6,120. This increase may double in the coming years.

"The emergency management director has indicated that, in the future, the stipend should probably rise because when he leaves, it might be hard to find somebody for what he's doing the job," Hutcheson said. "He, of course, was very conscientious, and estimates us spending 30 to 40 hours a month on emergency management work, which if you turn it into an hourly wage, it's very, very low in feed. So he is suggesting at some point doubling the stipend and I say that as an indication of things to come perhaps next year."

The Emergency Management expenses budget would also see a slight increase, from $10,458 to $10,594, bringing the total budget to $16,714, a 1.56 percent total increase.

The Dalton Development & Industrial Commission is not requesting any change in budget from $1,300, but committee members questioned the fact the commission did not spend a dime of its budget in fiscal 2022.

"If this budget is unused, it reverts back to free cash. And if we ultimately eliminate it, we won't see it in next year's budget, and it won't show up in next year's budgeting process," committee Chair William Drosehn.

Town Accountant Sandra Albano explained that the line item went unused these last two years because former Town Administrator Ken Walto left in August 2020 and the commission was not holding meetings because of COVID-19.  

"It had something to do with COVID, actually, because meetings weren't held. So some of the expenditures in this department have to do with meeting kind of things," she said. "So that could be what happened, and Ken also was the chair of that department."

The committee also took up the budgets for the Forest Wardens, Police Department and communications, but had questions about a number of line items so those budgets were postponed to the next meeting on March 9.