Thursday, August 30, 2007

Taxpayer victory!

Alternative financing isn't just an "alternative" anymore—it's an essential tool for meeting our federal energy goals. - US Department of Energy website

Well... it was an interesting capital budget discussion tonight.

The crux of my concern with the capital budget was not on the projects included in the budget, but how those projects are (or could be) financed. I've been advocating for a while now (most recently at the Council meeting only two weeks ago... in the midst of the capital budget discussions) that the town take a comprehensive look at our building infrastructure and consider an alternative form of financing (specifically, performance contracting) for energy efficiency projects.

Why?

Well, for instance, in this budget alone the taxpayers may have been able to avoid a cash outlay of $630,000... if we had considered performance contracting, but we didn't.

Regardless, while the Council had ignored my calls for consideration of these projects... tonight I was finally given public support. That means going forward, the Town will consider this form of financing for upcoming projects, such as:

1) the $1,900,000 "electric retrofit" at CHS,
2) a $4,500,000 "maintenance project" at the sewer plant and
3) $3,000,000 for a new fire house in the north end.

So it's entirely possible that projects such as these will never require a cash outlay from the taxpayers. Rather, their costs could be covered through money saved on energy efficiencies.

Bottom line... this is a victory for the taxpayers and the town! And I'd like to thank Mike Ecke for his public support! (Privately, I also received support from Elizabeth Esty... so a thank you to her too!)

While it's unfortunate that the Council had not acted sooner, so as to possibly be able to avoid a $630,000 cash outlay for the current year capital budget... I think this is a perfect example of how the Council can work together to bring new ideas to the table.

And if you're interested in learning more about "energy savings performance contracts," click here.

Tim White
Town Council, Budget Committee

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the public notification for the Northend fire station to support the Northend Sprawl?

We should have a naming contest for it.

Anonymous said...

Here is a suggestion. Have the North End developer build a part of the mall a fire station on the property. Improved response time, better insurance rates. Secondly, we all know that a new sewer pumping station will be required and an upgrade to the overall capacity. Include the pump station under the parking lots and have the developer pay for the upgrade to the sewer capacity.

The writing was on the wall last night; increased costs to the Town for this proposed development, problem is the majority of the politicians choose not to admit it in public.

Anonymous said...

The performance based contract is an excellent method that is used to purchase capital equipment or projects without requiring the owner of the business or in this case, the Town to ask spend additional money.

Using the pool as an example; it costs about $400,000 per year for energy. A Energy services company (ESCO) will come in, design, build and make the required changes to the facility. These changes could be; polycarbonate glass structure, new HVAC system that includes dehumidification, reverse flow, combined heat & power units (CHP).

The expected and contractually agreed to results are a reduction of energy costs by 50% or $200,000 per year. The payment plan is as follows; the Town would continue to pay the energy costs. approx: $200,000 annually and the ESCO would receive $200,000 per year until the cost of the project was paid off. The beauty of the plan is the Town does have to ask the taxpayers for additional money, the costs are paid for out of energy savings.

This approach is tried and true, been done for almost 20 years. The performance contract approach works, not for every project but any project that has a large energy portion to it, this is a viable concept the Town needs to consider.

Anonymous said...

Can't believe we're wasting money on a new elevator at CHS when they have one already that suits the purpose. Too bad this one couldn't have gone to referendum. I don't think there's any victory yet.

Anonymous said...

An impact study for the Ne proposal is needed. If and it's a big IF we receive the 1m/yr in revenue it will take a long time before we gain financially. It's great to have all this performance base contract etc. but this NE might cost us a lot. Someone better start looking into it.

Anonymous said...

It looks very much like the Town Manager and the Democrats on the council didn't want to put any of the needed infrastructure costs into the capital budget. I'm sure they were trying to hide these direct costs from us until P&Z rubber stamps the W/S proposal and so that this would not hurt them during the elections.

Thank the Republicans for forcing them to put some of the infrastructure costs into the 5 year budget so that they are not hidden from the people. They didn't want us to see the costs of the Northend sprawl and for us to think about how our taxes will go up. We can thank our Council Democrats for voting in lockstep for stupid growth and and their support of our local "Good Ole Boy" developers.

The Council Democrats really stuck it to us.

I used to think the Democrats were for the people and not for the special interests, but in Cheshire that's not true. The developers run this town and our job is to pay the taxes to support their businesses.

Anonymous said...

Tim
Next time you decide to put up one of your great ideas think it out first
You looked like a real fool bubba and it cost you alot of votes

Anonymous said...

I'd say it was Mike Ecke that looked like a fool. His knickers were in such a twist, I thought he was gonna jump the dias and break Tim's ribs. lol

Anonymous said...

Support from who? Do you think that they will give you support off the camera? I wouldn't bet my last dollar on it. Be careful. I would support maintaining and improving on things that we have and not on items that are not needed. The taxes and other costs are climbing faster than our incomes. We must justify every expenditure.

Anonymous said...

An extra $250,000 from the State and it will go into our surplus. Great. I paid more taxes to the Town and the State for no reason. Now the powers to be have overtaxed me and they will put it in their pocket to spend as they wish. Something is wrong with this picture. Why does this have to happen every year? This should be changed ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Next time you get one of your bright ideas get everyone one board-try to be more transparent and think it through
and next time answer the questions when asked
looked real foolish

Anonymous said...

Mike Ecke looked like a Statesman...

Anonymous said...

Statesmsan?...Ecke looked like a shoehorn.

Anonymous said...

Inland Wetlands Commission Public Hearing on Sept. 4, Tuesday at 7:30 PM, Town Hall.

Please forward:


To hear the permit application of "Cheshire Route 10 LLC" for a Site Plan - Interchange Special Development Project.

The 500,000 - 600,000 sq ft mall, the hotel and 160 apartments.

Anonymous said...

It will only be a "taxpayer victory" when the republicans take over control of the council.