At this meeting the Council was presented with budget detailed spreadsheets and the Manager's “FY2008-09 Budget Message”. The following is the short version of the planned budget discussion:
Goal: A .09 tax rate (.0075 less than last year). With a total assessment of both real and personal property of $370,365 (from the Dare County Tax website) this tax rate would save me approximately$27.78. Or in simpler terms $7.50 per $100,000 in value.
Expenditures: Increased expenditures were noted in: salaries, benefits, cost-of-living increases, merit pay, fuel and insurance, despite the reduction in force of two permanent employee positions (replaced by temps). New with the presentation of this budget is Council Compensation totaling $18,600.
Revenue: Anticipated lose of revenue collection was noted in: Land Transfer Tax, Occupancy and local Sales taxes, Powell Bill money (for road repairs), and Building Permit fees. Of course the decrease in the property tax rate would also effect reduce both the revenue from that and the percentage of funding the town receives from the division of the Occupancy Tax collected by the county.
Undesignated Fund Balance: According to this plan, the Fund would remain at 75% (I assume 75% of the town's operating expense), and would not be used to balance this budget. Any growth would be transferred from the General fund to the Capital Reserve.
Reduction of Services: As previously established by town administration or council, the reduction in the number of recycling pickups in Winter, the elimination of the Chipping Program for the months June, July , and August, along with the modification of the Lifeguard/Ocean Rescue service, assist in making this budget balance.
Capital Improvements: None planned. $15,000 is included for the engineering studies required, but there is still yet no Capital Improvement Plan, therefore there are no street repairs or Storm Water mitigation projects scheduled or funded. Apparently two replacement squad cars for the Police Department had been considered, but removed from this budget plan.
Volunteer Fire Department: As a contracted agent for TOSS the VFD requested a budget of $341,600, noting the increase was due to: insurance costs (up 26.9%), fuel (up 14.3%), as well as, increases in Workers Compensation, Medical exams, State Pension contributions, member's benefits and awards (Volunteer Retention). Also, the hiring of the Departments first paid Fire Chief.
The Town Manager's recommendation was for no increase at all! This results in a budget of $291,400.
Compare this to our neighboring Fire Districts:
Town 07/08 08/09 (recommended by Town Manager)
Duck $427, 816 $517,500
Kitty Hawk $1,217490 (N/A at this time)
Conclusions: These are my thoughts and do not reflect the thoughts or opinions of anyone but myself.
The proposed budget appears to specifically reduce those services that directly benefit the individual taxpayers while increasing the Administrative and Operational costs of Town Hall. Don't mistake what I am saying. I think our Town employees are doing an outstanding job and have and deserve every benefit they receive. And, as exhibited by the turnover rate of the last couple of years, the Town must be competitive to retain good employees.
I would just rather have the Town keep my $27.78 and restore the services I used to have and fully fund the SSVFD (even if that means a modest tax increase).
Further: The audience at this workshop only consisted of myself, two other citizens, and the Fire Chief. The session was recessed until the May 27 Council Meeting (8:00 AM) and will be resumed at the end of that meeting. If you have and concerns about any of the above, you will want to attend.
This budget is still a work-in-progress and may be altered considerably. I believe Mayor Smith would like to present a budget that is further reduced in order to affect an .08 per $100 tax rate. While Council member Hess would like to consider a budget representing the current .0975 rate.
A full copy of the budget message can be found here.
There was considerably more discussion regarding the SSVFD at the meeting which I will cover further after I've had more time to sort out my thoughts.
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