Proctor to brainstorm on budget
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By DAWSON RASPUZZI Herald Staff - Published: January 5, 2009
PROCTOR — Residents of Proctor will have a final opportunity today to give input on next fiscal year's budget before it is completed later this month.
A public Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Proctor Free Library where the only item on the agenda is discussion of the 200-9/10 budget that will be voted on at Town Meeting Day in March.
"We haven't finalized the budget yet so we're hoping this will be a meeting to get input from the town," said Select Board Chairman Richard Norris.
Norris said the budget is expected to be completed around the middle of January, giving the Finance Committee up to two weeks to make any adjustments it sees fit as a result of the meeting.
Although the date of the meeting is cutting it close, the committee wanted to firm up the numbers the public would hear before holding the meeting, Norris said.
The Finance Committee, in its first year after the Select Board voted to assemble the panel in the fall, has been working on the budget since the beginning of December and has been able to tentatively propose a budget with a minimal increase, Norris said.
"We tried to bear in mind to level-fund it, but level-fund is anywhere from a 3 to 5 percent increase from outside insurance costs and items we don't have any control over — and it looks like we're looking fairly decent," Norris said.
Norris said the tentative budget as it stands now is within a 3 percent to 5 percent from the current budget, but the numbers could change before it's finalized.
"If they (the public) come out and take a strong position, then the Select Board has really got to look at that opposition and consider it," Norris said. "This is meant to give us, and give the public, a chance to have somewhat of a say in the budget."
Aside from input on budget lines, the meeting is also meant to inform taxpayers of how their taxes will be spent prior to discussing and then voting the budget on Town Meeting Day, where residents vote on the ballot from the floor in Proctor.
"We're hoping people will come to this primarily because if they come in and see what's going on and ask their questions they'll know, and so it may save time come Town Meeting Day," Norris said.
Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at dawson.raspuzzi@rutlandherald.com.
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