South Berwick resident Gretchen Straub offers her thoughts on the upcoming Town Budget vote.
FYI: The Town Budget will be voted on at Town Meeting on June 1, 2009, 6:30 pm at Auditorium Hall, Third Floor of Town Hall. The 2010 Budget Warrant and additional budget information is available at the Town web site.
We are all about to go vote on South Berwick’s proposed budget for the next year.
Available to the public, are many detailed pages of the budget. The number of pages and line items is overwhelming.
To help people see the “forest through the trees” I am presenting an illustration of financial patterns in South Berwick.
The first nine years of information is derived from audited financial statements.
The current fiscal year will end in two months so the revenue/expense points come from warranted budget figures while the fund balance point is a projection.
The last points on the graph show the proposed budget that we will be voting on.
The town council has put together a “no tax increase” budget that is illustrated with the dotted red and green lines.
There is one article in the warrant that could cause a tax increase by about $100 per every $250,000 of property. If this article gets voted up then we will have a “tax increase” budget. That budget is illustrated with the solid red and green lines.
This one article is all about Witchtrot Road. The road is a connector road and has deteriorated considerably. The town proposes spending $250,000 to repair this road.
I believe that the proposed budget shows the town council trying to keep expenditures down but also offering the citizens the chance to pay a little extra to keep things out of disrepair.
I hope people make comments on this article.
The more people talk about the budget…the more they will turn out to vote.
–Gretchen Straub
Note from Molly: Please comment, differing opinions are encouraged. Remember to use your name in your comment and to be civil. Comments are held for moderation to assure that published comments have the name of the commenter. Sorry, no anonymous comments.
Nobody has commented on this editorial and I believe it is because it looks like….the budget we will be voting on is unremarkable.
The remarkable thing about the budget is that there will be no or very little tax increase.
What needs to be known is that at the Town Meeting on June 1 it is quite likely that there will be a contingent of people trying to make the outcome of the evening a greatly reduced final budget that will bring the town to its knees.
At the town meeting, the Council will be asking us, the voters, to support their proposed budget.
If you look at recent history you will see budget increases that have outpaced inflation accompanied with a depletion of the Town’s reserves. This current council has stopped this trend and presented us with a fair and frugal budget.
Only the voters in the room that evening have the right to vote on the proposed budget.
If the voters want to reduce the proposed budget items they may do that as well.
If the budgeted appropriations go lower than the Town Council has proposed the Town of South Berwick will suffer.
The Town of South Berwick needs financially realistic people to take the time to attend the meeting and vote YES to the articles.
Without your support it is quite likely the budget will be slashed and the town will suffer.
Please support the fair and frugal budget the Town Council has developed.
I agree, Gretchen, that the people passionate about the June 1st meeting will be there to vote against everything. I hope everyone will try to attend and participate in this vanishing form of democracy.
One thing that I am going to vote against is repairing Witchtrot Road. I live on Witchtrot….did you know the speed limit is 25mph? Does anyone know that?!?!? When the road is in good shape people drive as if it is an extension of RTE 236. I can’
t tell you how many mail boxes I’ve lost or how many times the telephone pole at the end of my driveway has been hit I say keep the road in rough shape….it slows down the traffic!
I have now heard from two people that there is a group of people that will ‘vote no on everything’ or like someone above said, will bring the town to its knees. I’m curious-how do you know that? Are you really suggesting that people should go and vote yes to everything without hearing discussion?
I would like to encourage ALL citizens to come to town meeting, listen to back ground and participate in debate on the issues and make up their own mind as to how to vote. It is important that we have an informed electorate. Town meeting is the legislative decision maker for the town budget, which ultimately controls what happens in town for services which you as citizens use. The Council is elected to present that budget and oversee its use, but the citizens set those parameters at town meeting. I have always felt that Town Meeting is the ultimate expression of democracy. A resident can have direct contact with the voters, share their opinion and see the result. That opinion is equally important whether it supports the town budget or criticizes it. Constructive criticism is welcome and helpful. Last year the council received suggestions regarding health insurance. During this past year, the administration implemented changes which allowed the town to save a considerable sum. Citizen input is important!! This is my personal opinion.
Tamre- I made my comment based on many years of attending meetings and volunteering on committees. It has been my experience that the people who make the effort to attend town meetings are often there because they are passionate about a single issue. For a considerable time, it seems that issue has been “reduce spending & cut taxes.” That is often confused with, but very different from what I consider being “fiscally responsible.”
Another thing that I have learned after years of being involved with the town is that most citizens do not get involved. There have been many votes in recent years where I have been dumbfounded by the results….what were the majority of my fellow citizens thinking!?!?! The people who attend meetings, write letters to editors, hold signs on street corners are the same people who are passionate enough to vote. Their voices are counted at a disproportionately higher number then people who are content with the status quo.
Town meeting is a special event. The majority of registered voters do not decide the outcome. The majority of people at the meeting set the agenda for the year to come. I’m not suggesting that people to show up and rubber stamp everything that the town council has budgeted. I am asking everyone who is interested in the future of South Berwick to attend the meeting, participate in the debate and cast their vote responsibly.
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