Town Salary Recommendations

The Orange Town Salary Review Committee has submitted pay recommendations for Town officials. The last report, done by a committee chaired by Jim Collins, was submitted five years ago. Town Moderation Dan Hazelton appointed this year's committee, comprising Dave Como, Jay Heinrichs, Colin Higbie, Karen McFarlane, and Lisa Thompson.

The report went to the Budget Committee for public discussion in the Town House 7pm January 16. Orange citizens will vote on the salaries at Town Meeting on March 9.

The committee used these criteria for its recommendations: 

• All other factors being equal, we believe that salaries should be set higher for critical positions in which mistakes could be costly to the Town.
• When possible, pay should support Orange’s spirit of volunteerism.
• Inflation has totaled 5.7% over the past five years, and remains low at 2% annually. We assumed reasonably low inflation for the next several years.
• Pay increases should not create an undue tax burden, especially given next year’s expected substantial tax hike to pay for the Mascoma School District construction.

Bottom line: the Salary Committee recommended keeping pay the same for all positions except for Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Town Clerk, Deputy Town Clerk, Select Board Secretary, and Road Agent. Judith Lindahl suggested we post the full report. You can read it here.

One correction: Bob Proulx pointed out that the calculated budget impact of Select Board Secretary is inaccurate. The actual figure is probably considerably larger. He and the rest of the Budget Committee will make their own calculation.