The capital budget adoption is delayed again
From the NHRs Luther Turmelle:
Finance Director Patti-Lynn Ryan said that $1.87 million to $2.1 million could be trimmed from the $9.3 million that has been proposed for the first year of the town’s five-year capital budget.
How much gets cut will depend on negotiations between the Town Council’s Democratic majority and its Republican minority. The council’s budget committee met for about 90 minutes Monday night to discuss a variety of scenarios.
As of last week, the plan had been scheduled to go to a full council vote tonight. But Town Manager Michael Milone requested a week’s delay to allow him and his staff to run a variety of scenarios requested by the council.
That's awfully nice of the TM to take the hit for rescheduling the vote, but... ummm... he's not the reason for the delay. The reason for the delay is that the Budget Chairman didn't get his ducks in a row and get a budget to the TM in a timely manner.
Now the TM takes the hit for this. That's not right. The Budget Chairman should have been on the record saying "I dawdled and didn't prepare a budget in a timely manner."
Frankly, I would normally ignore something like this, but... ummm... this is the second consecutive year that no capital budget was adopted at the scheduled meeting time. I'm tired of this lack of planning.
Tim White
6 comments:
From the NH Register -
"ÇWhether to divert money from a state $525,000 grant to install artificial turf at the Cheshire High School football field or use the money to build new locker rooms and resurface the track."
This one is a no brainer.
How could he not be ready with a budget?? I think it's an excuse to give him more time to preserve his pet projects before those funds get used for something else.
Vote em out!!
can the money legally be diverted from turf to locker rooms?
Yes, they can. Check out what Wallingford did in this press release (from Sen. Fasano). Here it is in part -
Last September, the Bond Commission awarded a $50,000 grant-in-aid to Wallingford, on behalf of the Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust, to assist with the costs of restoration of the Joseph Blakeslee House. This project was determined to be unfeasible and so the funds were redirected to the Silver Museum to restore the wrought iron fence, create a paved parking lot, and make other improvements.
... But we must be sure to read the fine print. All of the conditions of the original application must be met. The terms and timeline most likely will remain the same. Make sure the grant does not call for something specific like a completion date of 12/1/09.
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