The Select Board approved the budget proposals that included cutting the town's community development position, reducing staff in the Department of Public Works, and leaving unfunded one open public safety position unfilled. Additional cuts would be required to meet a budget line item that is a fixed-monetary budget, which would increase funding for services and staffing. The town's public safety budgets would increase due to contractual and equipment obligations. The deficit is rooted in the structural deficit the town has been facing for years from using surplus or "free cash" to balance the operating budget, along with reductions in revenues from excise taxes, interest income from expired ARPA funds, building permits, and tax receipts related to an economic slowdown. The proposed budget also includes increasing overtime for mandatory staffing requirements on staffs already stretched thin due to military leaves of absence, injury and illness.