This article appeared in the Townsman, November 20 edition
Unanimous adoption of the 2009 budget was followed by hearty self-congratulations among some members of the town board, delighted that the initially proposed tax hike for the general fund had been reduced from 8.1% to 3.58%, and the proposed 6.7% increase in the highway budget reduced to 5.99%. Councilman Chris Collins was happy enough to distribute to each board member a "Cut The Fat" button.
Careful scrutiny of the general fund budget, however, took away some of the glow. By increasing medical co-pays from $10 to $20 dollars the board was able to shave almost $72,000 from the cost of insuring Town general fund employees (the highway budget saw a $11,000 trim). Also trimmed from the budget was $10,000 for legal fees (now $57,500), $2000 from purchasing (now $8000; this fund is used for office supplies), $1100 from police (now $887,750) $4034 from the building inspector's office (now $192,025; the savings comes from not paying the secretary who has worked in the building department for seven years the full salary for her upgrade to Building Inspector I), $4680 from Planning (now $67,639), and $2000 from shade trees (now $500), for a total trim of approximately $95,000. When all was said and done, however, the total expenditures reduced the tentative budget by only $40,370.
This was because added to the tentative budget were $9939 for sidewalks, $33,000 to cover engineering costs of improving the upper Comeau parking lot, and several small items, explaining why the overall cut ultimately comes to only about the $40,000.
The modest cut (.1%) to expenditures was aided by a $42,000 increased appropriation from the unexpended balance fund (from $389,000 to $431,000), and the appropriation of reserves established for repair to the landfill cap amounting to $56,500, a combined sum of $98,500 that single handedly reduced the proposed levy by 3.4%.
Problems, perhaps big or small lay ahead. According to the town clerk, Jackie Earley, none of the employees were advised of the changes in co-pays for medical services. Earley, a former shop steward for the Communication Workers of America union, which represents a clutch of Town employees, predicted extreme interest from the union on this matter. Several years ago the town board raised co-pays from $5 to $10 after consultation with union reps and employees, agreeing for the first year to reimburse the difference in costs and then phasing the payments out. No money has been appropriated for this in the 2009 budget.
Depending on how the economy behaves in the coming year, and particularly its impact on mortgage tax and sales tax receipts, will determine how delighted the town board will be next year with its "rainy day fund" (the unexpended balance) scraped to the bone and no repair funds to appropriate.
The town board had no response to the reminder that the landfill cap had eroded once already, which had led to the creation of a repair reserve in the first place. The money now will simply be appropriated to offset the general fund levy.
Councilwoman Liz Simonson, first priding herself for all the money crunching she performed as a Penny's employee almost twenty years ago, reminded the board that not a dime had been appropriated for costs associated with implementing the Comeau conservation easement (gestimates for the survey alone have ranged from $12,000 to $60,000), apparently goading Collins into a statement promising action "when the time comes," but not into his willingness to increase the budget. Although tensions have been visibly mounting between these two members up for re-election in 2009, they joined the rest of the board in the unanimous vote for the budget.
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