The Big Muddy

Once again, it is Budget season and the Board of Trustees has begun holding frequent Budget Workshops to analyze the budget and determine what should be included this year and what won't. As expected, just like EVERY organization, times are very difficult this year with the unprecedented economic climate we face. However, far worse than expected is that we are looking down the barrel of a $5 MILLION budget gap, which would translate to a 27% Municipal Tax increase if nothing were done!

Clearly, a 27% increase is completely unacceptable. However, we are now faced with the difficult task of determining what elements of the budget should be trimmed to reduce the gap.

At this point, the largest drivers of the increase are: Reduced Surplus (about $1.8M), Personnel Costs, Fixed Costs, Reduced State Aid, (last year we received $600k in extraordinary aid that we cannot count on again), Debt Service and Capital Improvements. With respect to Capital Improvements, we have identified approximately $11M of projects that are LONG overdue, such as replacement of vehicles, building maintenance and roadway improvements for which money has never been set aside. To undertake these projects, requires a 5% "down payment", which equates to almost $550k. It might be easy to suggest deferring these improvements, but the problem is that has been the "answer" for many many years and at some point the work must be done or we will face the situation of the Old Stone House with many more assets of the town.

So, to deal with these challenges, we asked all Village Departments to propose how they can cut a percentage of their current budgets by reducing services/staff costs and/or what revenue could be increased. Monday night, we met with the first two departments - Library and Recreation to hear their proposals.

From Library, the proposals came to a net change of 0%...which unfortunately does not help the situation.

From Recreation, some proposals were presented as follows:

• Increase the cost of Recreation Badges/Guest Passes/Babysitter Passes
• Increase the cost of Summer Day Camp
• Increase the cost of program fees
• Eliminate the fireworks from Village Aglow
• Reduce some costs for Holiday Lighting

At this point, no final decisions have been made. Depending on the severity of these increases, this COULD generate an additional $200k or so, but that is still a long long way away from $5M!

The next Budget Workshop is February 17 at 7:30pm in Village Hall