North East dives into budget process

NORTH EAST — The town has officially begun budget season, as it reviewed the tentative budget at its workshop meeting on Thursday, Oct. 1, at Town Hall.

The process took some time to run through. It all started with a look at the general fund.

Town Supervisor Dave Sherman addressed a cost that few may think about — that incurred by county elections.

“Do you know towns, mayors and supervisors are all concerned about this?� he said. “We should plan on an estimated cost of $5,800 to $6,200 for voting machines. And towns have to have their budgets resolved in November. My feeling about it is this matter should have come up earlier this year.�

“I think in the interest of all, voting machines should be returned to the towns,� said Councilman Dan Briggs, speaking about the county’s decision to remove the machines from polling places between elections. “Because we’re going to be paying for it, one way or another.�

Sherman agreed, and said machines are costly to move and store, and easy to damage in transit. He suggested the county leave them at polling places, at least until the newer, electronic machines come out.

“I just think this is an example, quite frankly, of what is a useless expense,� Briggs added. “I think we should let the county know the best place for voting machines is back with the towns. It doesn’t get us any tangible benefits.�

“I just figured you needed to be aware of this,� Sherman said as the board changed topics.

Next up was a discussion of insurance and sales tax. Sherman said that no change has occurred since the town received roughly $66,000. Based on that, he said, it made an increase in the amount of expected tax for 2010. In terms of mortgage tax, Sherman said he planned to put $62,000 in the budget line for mortgage tax.

“This is certainly a time when you’re not going to count your chickens before they’re hatched,� he said.

Meanwhile, the supervisor did say that the tax base had some growth. It went up roughly $12 million, from $380,912,534 to $392,615,752.

Then the board talked details about specific budget lines. Money for one of the laborers came partly from the Town Hall and partly from the highway budget. Accounting services were written in for $8,200. The town clerk’s line merged with a line for contractual expenses. Numbers for the central communication services, copier, advertising legal notices and central data processing all rose a total of $1,500. Un-allocated insurance went down to the tune of $450.

The highway superintendent’s line stayed put, while the contractual expenses for the town garage went down $3,000 to $18,000.

“We did a couple of adjustments [to state retirement],� Sherman said. “The county said it did some per the state comptroller, who said, ‘Not really.’ What we’re being billed in 2009 is less than what we have in the budget.

“We pay on actual liabilities created, so we maintain a special unemployment  reserve to pay out from, based on workers’ compensation premiums,â€� he added.

In terms of revenues, Sherman said that each year the town requests to continue to collect interest and penalties on real property taxes after February. The normal tax crunch period is through February and extends as late as May.

“This acts as additional revenue,� he said. “It’s variable depending on how many bills get paid on time.�

The franchise fees are reportedly doing better. They were increased by $1,500. Dog pound fees were up to $175; dog licenses increased by $500 to $2,000.  Fines and forfeited bails are up $5,000  to $17,000.

As far as state revenue sharing, Sherman said the town finally learned its stake. The state came through with $12,000.

“I think next year is going to be a very telling year on what the state is going to be charging on things,� he said, adding that it’s projected at $6,000 for next year. “The state is not going to be in the position to provide the kind of funding that it has.�

Mortgage tax was next discussed. Sherman said he put in $62,000 in that budget line; that’s $38,000 less that the $100,000 placed in the 2009 budget.

“This may be lacking, but things will have to get better and then maybe we’ll see an improvement,� he said.

The board next moved to the B fund.  It again went through the line items individually, talking about specifics when issues arose.

State retirement saw a hike of $1,800; Social Security saw no change; medical insurance rates rose $1,240 — all in an attempt to provide essential services while keeping costs manageable.

The revenue page stated that sales tax distribution was up $10,000. Building permits were down $1,000, and Sherman said the town is “not expecting a whole lot of activity� at this point. Planning Board fees dropped from $800 to $200. Interest and earnings were down $1,000 to $7,000. In total the revenues amounted to $7,200.

The town’s highway fund also was addressed by the supervisor.

“We wound up with the actual number at the end of the year at zero, because we moved everything out of the budget,� he said.

When Highway Superintendent Robert Stevens was asked how he’s going to deal with the impending winter weather, the answer was quick.

“I’m just hoping for a mild winter, actually,� he said.

He’s not the only one, as sand and salt costs always hit the town hard.

There were slight adjustments made to the state retirement, workers’ compensation and hospital and medical insurance (which was down $7,260 in the highway fund).

The town also briefly talked about the fire district’s budget, which Sherman said was “the easy part,� as the town has no say in it. The district is planning for a budget hearing soon, which will produce numbers that will, in turn, be submitted to the town.

The board continued its discussion of the budget until the review was complete. It will continue to tackle the ins and outs of the fiscal plan at subsequent meetings, until a final budget document is produced. That needs to be done by the end of November.