Table of Contents
The Town Budget
| The good news about the town budget passed last Wednesday (March 16) is that the real estate taxes will remain relatively flat. The bad news is that in a year when the state is proposing to give the town $3 million in new funds and the feds have given the town $10 million, we should have been able to reduce taxes, not just keep them flat. Also discouraging is the fact that instead of transferring $1 million from our $30 million Unassigned Fund Balance to our underfunded pension fund, which would reduce our annual pension contribution by over $100,000 as recommended by theBoard of Finance, the approved budget subsides additional annual operating spending by $300,000 form the Undesignated Fund Balance Instead. Apparently, those that approved the budget are only interested in using the Undesignated Fund Balance to cover increased annual operating costs but not reducing our outstanding pension liability. Finally, the budget also includes $2 million in taxpayer dollars to renovate a portion of Naubuc Elementary School when the entire $3+ million dollar project could have been funded with federal ARPA funds. The only reason to prefer 33% reimbursement from the state school construction program over the 100% reimbursement federal ARPA funds made available was to leave ARPA dollars to pay for other pet projects in the near future. One council member spoke about doing something for businesses hurt by the pandemic, another about buying land for affordable housing, and one summed up the majority position best explaining how it’s not the Town Councils role to save taxpayer’s money. Helping everyone in town by reducing our resident’ tax burden in this time of high inflation should be the priority in my opinion. |