By Steve Plunkett
The town will dip into reserve funds again to continue providing municipal services without raising property taxes.
Town commissioners tentatively adopted the rollback rate of $3.41 per $1,000 of taxable value at a special meeting July 26. State law will let them lower the rate as they fine-tune the budget, but not raise it. Voter-approved debt will add 93 cents per $1,000 to the tax bill.
The current year’s rate was $3.25 per $1,000 value plus 94 cents per $1,000 for debt.
“To balance our budget we’ll need to take $702,256 from our unreserved fund balance,” acting Finance Director Cale Curtis told them.
It’s a strategy the town has been using as its tax base declined more than 25 percent over the past five years, Curtis said, from a high of $2.3 billion to the current $1.7 billion. In just the past year it dropped 4.3 percent.
Curtis said the proposed budget funds all department services and calls for no layoffs, pay cuts, furloughs or reductions in town employee benefits. The town will reduced operating expenses about 6 percent, he said.
The proposal’s biggest-ticket items include $75,000 for books and other media at the library, $21,000 for a new air conditioner at Town Hall and $15,000 to put header curbs on Bel Lido at A1A.
Commissioner John Pagliaro asked if the tax rate could be lowered, Commissioner Doris Trinley asked if it should be raised to avoid using the reserve fund.
“We’re facing very difficult times in the economy today. I think it’s very trying on all of our residents that we keep taxes the same as they are rather than increasing it this year,” Mayor Bernard Featherman said.
Public hearings on the budget will be 5:01 p.m. Sept. 6 and Sept. 21 at Town Hall. Ú
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