Capital Budget '10/11: police, emergency ops
The Council will be discussing the TMs proposed capital budget for police and other emergency services on Tuesday, August 17 @ 7pm in Town Hall. The TM eliminated a proposed additional emergency operations center already, but I still figured I should include it here:
Also on the agenda that evening is the police. Routine replacement of the PDs fleet obviously needs to continue. I do have one concern about this though. The Council tries to abide by the rule of thumb that capital items should cost more than $110,000 and have a life expectancy of five years or more. I think that makes sense because it helps us avoid shifting operating budget expenses into the capital budget. And as a taxpayer, that's one thing that irks me -- when I see Washington and Hartford bonding our operating budget. Yet if the Town is capitalizing items that cost relatively small dollars and / or have short lives... are we doing the same?
That may not be happening in Cheshire. I'm not sure at this point because we have the capital non-recurring fund (CNR) which is part of the operating budget. In other words... if the police cars are purchased from the CNR account, then they're not being purchased with bonded money. And that's appropriate IMO. So we'll have to see where this goes. It's just a philosophical viewpoint I have and it's not necessarily a big deal right now. But it is a slippery slope.
And here's the PDs capital budget proposal:
Tim White
4 comments:
Bonding or borrowing money for operational budgets is fiscal stupidity. You buy what appreciates, you lease what depreciates. You never borrow money to pay a credit card bill
That's not the Obama way. Shame on you Bill.
bill, you always have alot to say, never saw your name in the running for TC
I would like to get an accounting of energy improvements that I supported and voted for. Are we at least saving energy? Where can I go to get this?
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