The first round of department head meetings didn’t change much of this town’s
bottom line Monday night.
As town councilmembers work to cut down a
proposed 54.3 percent property tax increase that accompanies the budget that
town Supervisor Earle Reed unveiled last week, the leaders of the highway and
engineering departments said they have nowhere else to cut.
“Cuts have
been made — I’m at barebones,” highway Supervisor Rick Sherman said. “If they
want to cut more, they are going to have to cut back on services.”
The
proposed $15 million budget is only about $30,000 higher than the 2009 budget.
The tax hike is so large, however, because the town has burned through all of
the $2.8 million its main savings account held in 2006 without officials
realizing until last spring that this was occurring.
Town Board member
Christine Krupa said she didn’t see any glaring areas where cuts could be
made.
“We’ll look at efficiencies in departments,” she said. “I didn’t
see anything yet that could be cut, but I haven’t digested it yet.”
In
the budget revealed last week, Sherman had cut about $100,000 from his
department. But that savings was eaten up by a 14 percent increase in employee
benefits, he said.
Sherman said he plans to replace some equipment, but
that will come out of the capital plan, not out of the general
budget.
Krupa suggested several cost-savings measures, including cutting
back on town clean-up days.
After the meeting, residents didn’t seem to
have much hope for seeing the budget trimmed. Fewer than 10 residents attended
the meeting.
“I don’t see where they are going to cut,” said Catherine
Lawrence, co-founder of the local watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Open and
Honest Government. “They’re talking about cutting back on town cleanup days. If
that’s all they’ve got to cut, it doesn’t sound hopeful to me.”
Before
the discussions began Monday, Town Budget Director Heather Mowat presented a
plan from board member David Reynolds to cut 10 percent across the board from
every department.
But Town Engineer John Meagher said that would be hard to
do.
“You have some departments like mine where it’s just me and postage
stamps,” he said. “They’ve already cut raises next year. There’s not much else
to cut.”
Town officials will continue their series of working sessions
with department heads on Wednesday at Butler Hall.
Senior Services will
be discussed at 6 p.m. and the assessor’s office will be discussed at 7
p.m.
