Saturday, March 08, 2008

TMs proposed 08/09 budget

Hot off the presses...The police delivered it only a few minutes ago. Comment away!

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's our collection (actual) rate now compared to the budgeted amount?

Anonymous said...

If I recall correctly, at the Feb Council meeting the TM mentioned that our collection rate (as of Jan 31) was in the high 90s. But tax bills weren't due until Feb 1 or Feb 2. So the assumption was that our collection rate would again be at (or above) the budgeted 98.7%.

Anonymous said...

I am a bit surprised by the number from the Town side, it is lower than I thought, but then again it has to be to help offset the bloodsucking education department.

Anonymous said...

Now that we have a number Tim, convert it to a mill rate increase.

Anonymous said...

Between that and my other expenses, there goes what I thought was an excellent raise of 4.75%.

Anonymous said...

And how much did it cost the taxpayers to have these budgets delivered by THE POLICE?

Anonymous said...

Yep, I'm sure Sting bills them a lot of money to make personal appearances

Anonymous said...

The mill rate increase will be under 1 mill. The town has a large surplus. The interest rate was good last year so the big nut that sits in the bank made lots. The collection rate was better than budgeted. Remember 1 mill will generate 2.5 milion. Before the reevaluation it was 1.8 million. They can reduce the reserve below 8%. Next year could be a problem depending on the economy.So I would not worry about this year but watch out next year. I believe we have reevaluation next year which will make the cheese more binding. Time will tell so keep tuned.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:09

I agree with your thoughts, in fact there does not even have to be a mill rate increase. The good news is the capital debt payment stayed the same as promised from a few years ago. The reval will increase commercial tax contributions if the other towns around us are a valid barometer.

Anonymous said...

why don't you people actually do some good and show up at some town council meetings and ask these questions?

Anonymous said...

I agree with last comments about showing up at the public hearings. I wrote the comments on this years budget and have written many letters and have spoken at the public hearings. However next year could bring people out. The budget has to hit their pocket book. Depending on the economy next year could be the year-stayed tuned

Anonymous said...

I know that I don't have the time to participate in person. The more channels of participation the better. I work full time, take grad classes, and raise two kids.

When participation is limited to only those with real time to invest, the demographic shifts (and vice-versa).

Anonymous said...

This looks like a great budget-imagine the republicans saying we would see spending out of control?
Since the dem hold the council the increases have been way less than when the rep were in control
and last years budget was a 9-0 vote they just had to go along

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:30 Over 2 million in surplus this year alone, is that good? Yes, but we were overtaxed. Look at the size of the budget increases not the mill rate increases. The D's have the majority so what's the purpose of disagreeing?

Anonymous said...

This is crazy. How are people on fixed incomes supposed to live? I guess if your the school superintendent, the TM, a teacher or work for the town, state or federal govt, this isn't a big deal you stll get your above inflation raises.

Let's eliminate the raises for Florio and Milone and see how they can deal with these tax increases.

If you work in the private sector, you don't get wage increases like this and you can't just increase your costs to your customers. In the private sector, you have to cut your cost or else you'll price yourself out of the market. The public sector just doesn't have to care about cost, but they also are a cause for private sector jobs being shipped to China.

Anonymous said...

The managers of public sectors have no motivation or reason to minimize expenses. They are trained to think the public will bear whatever the costs are. They would not do well in private industry. The mindset is everything costs more each year so let the taxpayers deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Excelent comments. Reb or Dem. MM The town manager runs the town. Look at the North End vote. It had nothing to do with party affiliation. MM will outline the budget and give the budget commetee some choices.If you want to know how it works come to the work shops. At the end of the work shops they will say do this or that at the direction of the town manager.
The big question is the fact that this situation of the difference between the private sector and the public sector is unsustainable. The real test could come next year when the state is short of money due to the drop in sales and income taxes. Inflation will be a real factor.
The only time the Reb did anything of real consequences was the year of the r.evaluation and the 0 budget. The BOE made the students pay for sports. This was not necessary as the BOE increased their slush fund (MEDICAL TRUST FUND)by 1 million dollars. I showed this at last years work shop and it was posted on Tim Whites blog.
This could all come to a head next year as a result of the economy. We are trying to create wealth where there is no wealth. Sooner or later it will come to head - maybe not in my life time but it will happen. THE PROCESS IS UNSUSTAINABLE.Nobody cares until it hits their pocket book. Come to the work shops and learn first hand. Stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

The previous comments where made by Bob

Anonymous said...

the fact remains that the dems on this council have been more thoughtful and care ful with the money than the previous rep majority councils
facts are facts

Anonymous said...

WHAT A GREAT USE OF POLICE SERVICES ON A STORMY FRIDAY NIGHT, DELIVERING MAIL.......
TAXPAYER MONEY WELL SPENT.

Anonymous said...

anon 5:59 It doesn't matter who's in charge. People like you, me, businesses and the TC members pay the taxes. As long as we pay at almost the 100% rate the council will give the people what they want. We all should start looking at the future when all of us might not be able to pay for some reason. We just can't go and borrow money like the federal government.

Anonymous said...

the fact remains that the dems on this council have been more thoughtful and care ful with the money than the previous rep majority councils
facts are facts"

Are you kidding me? Were they thoughtful to the seniors in this town when the promised to freeze their taxes and the Republicans are the ones who called them out on this. They are your run of the mill tax and spend liberals. Facts are facts.

Anonymous said...

the fact remains that the dems on this council have been more thoughtful and care ful with the money than the previous rep majority councils
facts are facts

The facts are that the dems wasted lots of money on consultants - ex: 20K on a pool consultant report that didn't tell them anything that they didn't already know.
They broke their promises to the elderly on the tax credits.
The have been paralyzed for quite some time now on what to do with the pool - meanwhile each year they think nothing of using 400K of our tax dollars to pay for the pool.
They increased the surplus and by making the fund balance policy they will be using more of our hard earned tax dollars each year to maintain it at the levels in their policy.
They are likely to accept 525K in turf money (our tax dollars again) with little regard to the added expense that will be incurred down the road.
They gave their approval for the North End with little regard to expenses that will be incurred down the road for that.
They keep adding and adding expenses to the budget with no regard to trimming expenses in other areas.

Anonymous said...

Tim, How come the dems are holding off on putting the turf funds from the state on the council agenda? Are they waiting to get through the budget process first then they'll spring it on everyone? They must know it's a total waste of tax dollars and probably don't want to rock the boat while hoping the town and boe budgets get passed through.

Anonymous said...

fact look at the rep council tax increases in the schrumm orsini days
then the big o and the big s tried the zero budget
errrt! minority status
mill rate increses of .45 and .50
rep never did that
errrt!yur busted

Anonymous said...

The dems have gone on record as saying for the past two years that as far as the budget goes we have had two windfall years - yet they still increased taxes - and they didn't even have to deal with a revaluation during either year - they made it town policy to keep the surplus funds between 8 and 9 % when they didn't have to.
errrt...think you're busted.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:21 Zero tax increases for the last 2 yrs and I would agree with you. We now have a surplus (which is good) but we where overtaxed and the money is there for the D's to spend again. I wish I could run my household budget that way. "Boss, let me have $10,000 more this year in case I spend too much or I can save it for next year if you can't give me a raise". I wonder what he would say?

Anonymous said...

Republicans ignored the problems and then jumped on the bandwagon
no leadership just alot of of roadblocks
No facing facts
Not one leader
Look at that lame campaign HQ last fall vs the dems
yer..busted homie

Anonymous said...

Acording to the paper this morning MM Mill rate increase will be 0.9 mills. He took 400,000 out of the BOE medical trust fund better known as the cash flow slush fund. He always leave a little more to cut so the budget committee will look like they are doing something.Tonite he may explain the income side.
anon comments are right on.

Anonymous said...

To much focus on blaming the Dem's and Rep's. You all need to focus on what is right. The zero budget year was fine. Ask yourself this question, better yet ask Florio to answer it. In the Zero Budget Year the school system spent about 2 million dollars more than in the previous year. If the they only received $242,000 additional State aid where did Florio find the $1.7 mil he spent?. Some clues: the sports programs parents had to pay for was only $109,000. Where did Forio get the money to pay contracted salary increases and increases in medical?

Anonymous said...

Now that we have a larger fund balance and it has been deemed by the Town Council we should demand from the Town Council any budget surplus be applied to next years budget increase. I can only hope the State passes legislation that limits a town including the BOW to a 3% annual increase.