Mr. Felton's explained the complexities of the budget, but I wanted to present the highlights here. The simple narrative is: We have almost no savings, we do not have enough cash to meet expenses and must borrow, we have no emergency funds, we are deep in debt, our revenue stream is flat, we have millions in long term expenses we need to prepare for, the select board's budget plus the warrant articles is higher than last year's budget, and the budget committee wants to cut the town's operating budget and increase capital reserves so that the budget is the same as in 2012.
The facts are are follows:
Key Trends
- Since 2009 property taxes have increased by $1,066,766, an $807 increase on a $200,000 house.
- 33% of the increase was from increases in the town budget
- $125,000 in capital reserve for roads; $0 in reserve for other needs
- Minimal cash on hand; will have to take out a TAN early in 2013 to pay bills
- Long term debt between 70 and 80% of municipal expenditures
- $10,791 in unassigned funds (emergency funds)
- Assessed property value flat since 2009
- Revenues other than property taxes continue to go down
- Town CIP Request - $2,308,000 over 10 years
- Town Accumulated Depreciation - $16,107,781
Select Board's Proposed Budget
- $2,820,867; $140,615 over 2012; $475,557 over 2009
- Warrant Articles $308,000
- Total if warrant articles are all approved - $3,128,867
- Budget + Warrant Articles = 2012 Budget
- Cut the proposed operating budget and add more capital reserves
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