Budget Progress ?

Three nights of budget deliberations have been completed. I was able to attend the first and second session, but was kept away from night three because of my work schedule at the shop.

So far we've discussed about half of the Town Departments. Most Departments were adjusted slightly, but with little change to the bottom line. There were increases to certain lines that the Council felt were important and deductions where a trim or two could be made.

This "balanced" philosophy changed when the larger Departments arrived - particularly with Public Works.

The Mayor's budget severely underfunded a number of lines in the Public Works Department pertaining to energy - heating oil, gasoline, electricity, etc. - these increases alone amount to almost an additional $150,000+ to the Town side of the budget.

Any Department and any line can be revisited by the Council, and I'm sure a number of them will be, before the process is over.

I remain hopefully that we can come in with a budget that has a lower tax increase than the Mayor proposed. I will keep you posted next week as to the progress.

Feel free to e-mail me at anytime to councilmancurtleng@yahoo.com for questions or suggestions - have a great weekend.