Editorial

At Tuesday's Gray Town Council meeting, the Gray Town Manager delivered his budget to the Council. By charter, that transmittal must occur 90 days prior to Town Meeting in June.

A citizen had obtained a copy if the budget draft and read it, formulated his thoughts, and came to the Council meeting prepared and ready to ask his questions and deliver his comments.

Unfortunately, the citizen had said that he found mathematical errors in the budget, most of them simple arithmetic. He said that this was not the first time he had found problems of this nature in the Gray Budget over the years. The Town Manager said that he would be glad to sit with the citizen and review the numbers.

The conversation degenerated from there, though, with both sides becoming angry, and the citizen ending with a plea. He said all he wanted was to pick up a budget, learn the philosophy behind the numbers, and make his decisions. He said that he did not want to have to dig out his calculator and check the work coming out of Town Office. Credibility and validity is what it is all about, he said.

The budget creation process has as many unique methods as there are municipalities. Each town is different in the way that they create, review, and deliver a budget to its citizens. In New Gloucester and SAD 15, there are "Budget Advisory Committees." (BAC)

These are volunteers from the community who agree to serve for a short period of time on a committee that reviews the budget either along with or parallel to the elected officials. The committee members are often charged with certain tasks and asked to make recommendations. They serve as another set of eyes as well.

Maybe it is time for Gray to consider a Budget Advisory Committee. This would serve the purposes as stated above but it would also serve to make the citizens more a part of the process than they are now. The budget generation process is not closed, and there are opportunities at every turn for citizens to participate, but it is from an outside, "us vs. them" standpoint. Any citizen may pick up a budget and review it, but when they attend a Council meeting to present their thoughts, if those thoughts are not consistent with a Council position, the citizens are accused of "throwing rocks" as Vice-Chair Lynn Olson said to the gentleman on Tuesday night.

Maybe a BAC in Gray would make the budget creation process more inclusive and mutually productive. And that is better for everyone.