News

Council cuts budget increase
Was 25% up, now 7% up
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray-The municipal budget delivered to the Gray Town Council on March 2 by Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz contained a request for a 25% increase. Some items in the Manager proposed budget were a salary raise for employees that would have cost $214,000, three new personnel positions, and an aggressive infrastructure improvement schedule.

The Council then met, along with the Manager, on March 11. They chopped the three new positions, cut back on the sidewalk improvement schedule, and slashed the salary raise request to $60,000, among other large and small cuts to the increase.

The Gray municipal budget increase as of March 16 is 7%.

The Council had a public informational hearing on the budget on March 16 at their regular council meeting. Several citizens came with questions. Andy Upham of Gray noted that the future capital improvements and expenditures seems to be a mechanism in which "we are funding future purchases with today's dollars, which will allow us to buy later." He agreed with the philosophy of preventive maintenance but questioned why there was a pattern of reserving money, not expending it, and then reserving more.

"Items I observed in the '02-'03 cycle but were budgeted in the '03-'04 cycle contained elements that were grossly under spent" He gave one example of putting in $$97,310 for vehicles maintenance and repair, and then expending only $53,992 of that amount, but then budgeting for a similar amount for the next year. He said the Town should not budget what they do not spend. He said it is possible to have a budget with no increase this year, a concept that was supported by Fran and Jim Monroe, who also spoke to the council regarding the high proposed increase.

Council Chair Pam Wilkinson said that they spotted non-expenditures as well, and asked the Manager to go back to his Department Heads to go back a few years, review the actual expenditures, and then readjust this year's requests.

Councilor Matt Sturgis said that he felt it was the Council's responsibility to come forward with "The most responsible budget, period. We need to keep the increase to as little as possible but that continues services."

This week, The Monument asked Chair Pam Wilkinson and Councilor Lynn Olson as to what the major changes were that reduced the increase from the Manager's draft budget, containing a 25% increase over last year, and the Council's draft budget so far, containing a 7% increase. Neither responded, but one forwarded the questions to Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz, who wrote:

"Major changes are the reductions of those line items that appeared in both 1100 and 1200 to assure we raise the funds only once as well as those revenue line items where the Council was able to estimate a higher amount (over the objection of the TM). As you go down the revenue and expense line items you will see those changes. Sorry, no one list exists. You will need to go line item to line item for comparison."