PITTSFIELD – Although the town’s proposed $2.5 million 2001 operating budget is $295,861 higher than this year’s, increased revenues are expected to cover all but $93,000 of those expenditures.

The proposals, which are compiled by Town Manager D. Dwight Dogherty after each department head submits budgets, will be intensively reviewed by the Town Council during a series of workshops.

Mayor Gary Jordan said the first workshop to review the operating budget will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27, along with a review of the $221,000 capital budget.

Jordan, who said Friday morning that he had just finished reviewing the budget, said all figures were projections and that each expenditure will be reviewed by the council.

According to Dogherty’s projections, revenues are expected to rise dramatically at the transfer station because of the town’s adoption earlier this fall of a mandatory recycling program.

At the same time, operating costs at the transfer station are expected to decrease when various labor and contractual costs are shifted to the recycling program. Dogherty has conservatively estimated that recycling income will increase by $28,000, which will be balanced by a $12,000 decrease at the transfer station and a $40,700 increase in operating expenses for the recycling program. This appears to mean a net increase for the trash and recycling centers of $56,000.

Because accurate figures were not available to Dogherty when he was compiling the budget, revenues may be underestimated and costs overestimated, Jordan said. “By the time we get to reviewing that department,” Jordan said, “we will have much more accurate figures.”

The biggest cost factors at the recycling center are $25,075 for door-to-door pickup of recyclables and an increase of $18,373 for a worker shift from part-time to full-time. That position is also reflected in insurance costs of $12,834.

Health costs increase 23 percent throughout the budget. Just for the town clerk’s coverage, for example, town costs went from $97 annually to $3,660. Insurance costs jumped by more than $4,000 for the police department, and more than $11,000 in the public works department.

Jordan explained that the proposed increases “are new but not firm,” since the council has not decided to adopt a cafeteria-style insurance program.

Other accounts with substantial increases include the police department, public works, library, debt service, community and social services and finance.

In most cases, those increases are a direct result of a combination of step increases in salaries and the insurance hike. The increase in the police department budget of $20,769 is offset by a $21,195 federal COPS FAST grant for a sixth police officer. COPS FAST stands for a federal program called Community Oriented Police Service and Funding Accelerated for Smaller Towns.

The Pittsfield Community Theater, despite a $9,613 proposed increase, apparently will run in the red this year, with revenues projected at $87,701, more than $7,000 less than needed to cover the theater’s yearly budget.

The debt service account increases by $40,718, which reflects payments for the Crawford-Higgins road reconstruction project, and the downtown storm water project, and $8,535 in interest for tax anticipation borrowing.

The town’s water and sewer departments, operated separately from the operating budget, show moderate increases in both revenues and expenditures. The Manson Park account, also operated separately, reflects a $10,000 increase, all attributed to grounds maintenance.