Proctor discusses budget cuts
Toolbox
By DAWSON RASPUZZI Herald Staff - Published: January 7, 2009
PROCTOR — A couple of dozen Proctor residents gathered at the town library on Monday with questions and concerns about the coming budget that the town's Finance Committee and Select Board are in the process of forming.
With the most recent draft of the proposed general fund budget calling for a $54,414 increase over the current budget, from $1,405,151 to $1,459,565 for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the talk of the evening was eliminating the 3.9 percent proposed increase.
While many of the rising costs come from uncontrollable lines in the budget, such as insurance and fuel, the other increases announced by the Finance Committee drew criticism from the crowd of people who repeatedly said taxes are already high enough.
Large increases in the proposed budget come from salary hikes of 5 percent for some of the town employees or $1 per hour for the others, said Michael O'Malley, a selectman who is also on the Finance Committee.
The fire department budget would also increase more than $7,000 to $140,632 if accepted as is, which O'Malley said was needed to increase the firefighter's stipend.
The proposed budget for the municipal building is also approximately $3,000 higher than the current year's, which O'Malley said is largely to pay for repairs to the building's steps and walkway.
The committee also announced a proposal to increase the stipend for the Select Board from $2,000 to $2,500 each, which drew criticism from members of the audience.
"People who hold these positions should do it to serve the community, not for the money," one man in the audience said. "I'd recommend we decrease their pay to $1,000 a year."
Although it's separate from the general fund budget, the committee also announced the proposed wastewater budget at approximately $264,000 and the water budget at $365,000 — about a quarter of which goes to paying off bonds.
The committee announced its intentions to propose the Select Board cut $2,800 from the water and wastewater budget — $800 from the fuel line and a $2,000 reduction in the miscellaneous line.
It also recommended reducing $46,090 from the Highway Department budget by eliminating the road paving projects proposed at the entrance to the town pool and the lower portion of Pine Street.
The Highway Department would also lose one full-time position if the board accepts the committee's recommendation to cut one of the four full-time positions and creating a 750-hour part-time position at $20 per hour.
The final recommendation announced is to increase the employee contribution for health insurance from 10 percent to 15 percent, O'Malley said.
Although the ideas of the committee will be suggested, the decision is up to the five selectmen.
If all of the recommendations are incorporated into the budget by the board it would be cut by about $63,000 and actually create a decrease from the current budget, the committee said.
Although some residents said a level-funded budget sounded good to them, others had plenty of suggestions of their own on how they would shrink the budget more, including shrinking the number of town employees and their salaries.
Several people said they believed a 5 percent increase was excessive in a time when the economy is struggling and people in town are already having trouble paying their taxes.
A few years ago there were at least three empty town positions and some residents said they would rather the number of employees return to the way it had been.
While O'Malley argued the services have also improved greatly during the past few years, others in the audience said they saw otherwise.
"Where are the better services?" asked Eric Anderson, "I'm still getting the same roads plowed, I'm still getting the same garbage taken away."
O'Malley argued the proposed increases were necessary to maintain the infrastructure of the community, must be invested in to keep property values high.
"If you want to cut expenses, you have to reduce services," O'Malley said.
O'Malley said after the meeting the Finance Committee would meet Wednesday to discuss the suggestions and would then give their recommendation to the Select Board, which plans to finalize the budget within the next couple of weeks.
Contact Dawson Raspuzzi at dawson.raspuzzi@rutlandherald.com.
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