Loose Change

It's the peak of Budget season again and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a tax increase that was once projected at around 29% has been whittled down to "only" 6.8% (so far) at our last Budget Workshop on March 15 without any major cuts. The reduction was mostly due to a recognition of surplus, projected revenue from the new Sterling Properties project and a better than expected tax collection rate.

The bad news is that we learned this week that the new Governor has radically cut State Aid to Municipalities, resulting in an additional cut over of over $400,000, which would theoretically bring the tax increase back up to almost 9%. (To add insult to injury, the Governor also cut state aid to the school district by over 80%, or $5.3M!)

Clearly a 9% Municipal increase is unacceptable under any circumstances (and even more so in this economy).

After a review of all departments, now we are starting to discuss opportunities to reduce costs or increase revenue. At the last Budget Meeting a number of increases to "user fees" were discussed and agreed to. Specifically:

• Increase the cost of Use Permits to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of zoning approvals to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of street opening permits to $138 (from $100)
• Increase the cost of a code reinspection to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of white metal pickup to $75 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of toter delivery to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost of mulch/woodchip delivery to $50 (from $0)
• Increase the cost for household bulk pickup to $75 (from $0)

While nobody ever wants costs to rise, it seems only fair to raise the fee for services that are used by those individuals. In addition, many of these services would still likely cost the same (or even more) if contracted for privately.

In the end, these fees add up over the course of a year and should be borne by the people who use these services. We still have a ways to go to refine and reduce the budget further, but the process is underway and we are continuing to try to find creative solutions to our very difficult tax burden.