Opinion: Supporting the Town Budget

I will be going to the June 1 Town Meeting and voting yes to accept the town budget as presented.  At the meeting we will be voting on the budget that pays for the infrastructure and services of the Town. The town budget is just one of the three determinants of our property taxes.  Last year the Town portion of our property taxes was 33%.

I am not one of those people who think every tax is a bad tax.  I’m old enough to know that things of value cost something and they have to be paid for somehow.  I also know that for a limited number of basic services with a high public benefit it is most efficient and cost effective for people to join together to purchase those things through the infrastructure of government.  For the other things we want, we have the private and the nonprofit sectors and they do a dandy job (mostly).

As I looked at the budget to decide whether to support it, I weighed three things:

1)  Affordability.  This is a tough time and Don and I are looking at all of our expenses to make sure that what we do spend is on things that are of good value.  I’m looking at this year’s town budget for its impact on my taxes.  I’m asking, “Are the taxes I pay reasonable for the services I get, are expenditures out of line, and if there is a tax increase, is it tied to important expenditures by the town?”

2) Quality of Life.   The value of my house is not just the building, but the broader community in which it is located.   When we chose this town twenty years ago, it wasn’t the cheapest town in which to buy property, but the quality of life here was worth the extra money to us.  When I look at the town budget I want to know that it is adequate to help preserve and maintain the quality of life that my husband and I have worked very hard to achieve.  Does the budget pay for the necessary services so I can live in a safe community, where my property and family are safe from crime?  Do we have the services to assure that we can be safe on the roads? Do we have the services so that we can get to where we want to go, even after a snowstorm?  If the worst should happen, do we have high quality rescue services just minutes away?  Do we have a well equipped and trained fire department?  Are the basic administrative tasks of life, like paying taxes, getting a car registered or getting a building permit, relatively easy and quick?  Do we have a clean environment and are we able to do what we need to do to keep it that way?  Are we making the investments we need to assure that we have a pleasant, safe, and vibrant business area in town where we can get basic services?   Are we investing in promoting local economic development?  Do we have a town with an active civic life, with a responsive government that welcomes public participation? Do we have healthy civic institutions like a library and a community center where we can be involved in community life?  Do we offer youth positive ways to be involved in the community?  Do we have leadership and administration that has the time, talent, and resources to respond to challenging times and to plan ahead so that the town will continue to be a good place to live?

3) Protecting the value of my home- My home is an important asset for my family’s financial well being.  Someday we are going to need every penny of worth out of it.  Much of its value comes not from it being some kind of fancy house, it’s a two bedroom cape with no garage, but from its location on a beautiful piece of property in a town that is attractive to home buyers.  When I talk to people who have bought houses here they mention the schools, the village, the beauty of the homes and farms, the rivers and open spaces, the reputation as an up and coming town, it being a good place to raise children, its small town feel.  When I look at the town budget and my property taxes, I don’t want to pay more than I have to, but I also don’t want to pay less than what is needed to make sure that my house and the town maintains its real estate value over time.

Here is why I’m supporting the budget

Despite increasing fixed and material costs, the proposed budget, even including the $250,000 for the Capital Road Plan, represents a 40 cent increase in the tax rate compared to last year.  The Town Manager and Town Council made the following changes in order to keep tax increases at a minimum:
-A new medical insurance plan for Town employees that saves $40,000
-Employees must now pay 15% of their insurance premium
-Merit increases have been suspended for this year
-COLA increases at 2.5% (inflation is 3.85%)
-One employee has been reduced from full time to 20 hrs/week
-Staff hours are reduced at the Library and Transfer Station
-An unfilled Police Office position has been eliminated

The last two years I have followed the town budget process very carefully by going to Town Council meeting, public hearings and workshops.  Based on what I’ve learned, I think that the town budget is very lean and does not have any fat that can be cut more.  I am pleased that the Manager and Council came up with a budget that minimizes tax increases, but does not significantly decrease the very bare bones services that we have in town.

I’ve been to the meetings and heard people say that we have too much administration and there should be ways to cut it.  I just don’t see it. I’ve worked in the private, the nonprofit, and the public sectors and I have seen first hand the waste of unnecessary layers of administration.  But I’ve also seen the problem of too little administration, where the result is that those who are paid high salaries for their managerial skills spend all their time filling out reports and attending to administrative details.  This often means that those in leadership positions don’t get to do the higher level things they are hired to do.  It seems to me that we don’t have unnecessary layers of personnel in our town government.  Yes, we could probably cut some hours or even some jobs at town hall, but what would be the cost of it?   Would I rather have John Schempf filling out some financial form that has to be filled out for the state or would I rather have him spending time figuring out how to get some money from Augusta to work on our traffic issues?  For me, it’s an easy answer.  I want Mr. Schempf and Mrs. Orsini, doing what they are paid to do:  running our town government efficiently, promoting economic development in town, researching the potential of a TIF zone, supervising department heads so they have clear goals and expectations, exploring regionalization of the transfer station, looking for ways to collaborate with other towns, seeking and securing state and federal funds that can assist the town, and carrying out the policies and direction set by the Town Council.  I fear that if there are cuts to administration we will lose the opportunity to work on these higher level issues that could bring long term savings and benefits to the town.  South Berwick has an over $10 million dollar budget.  It is naïve to think that we need the same level of administration we had when the budget was half that.

I have also heard some people say that Town employees have too good a deal and we should be going after their benefits and salaries.  There is no question that they have fairly good job benefits and comparatively, given the bad economy and the erosion of worker pay and benefits in the private sector, they are in a pretty good position.  I am happy to see that they are now paying a portion of their health benefits and will forego merit pay this year and are getting a reduced COLA.   On the other hand I don’t think they should have to bear more than their share of the responsibility for reducing our town budget.  Yes, taxes pay their salaries, (taxes which many of them also pay) but we taxpayers get services in return for our taxes.  Maybe I grew up in a different time, but I still see public employment as public service.  I appreciate how often Town employees take time away from their own families to attend night meetings and show up at community events in their off time.  Often when Don and I are coming home from a night out in Portsmouth I see our police officers walking up to a darkened car they have stopped on Route 236 and I think “We don’t pay them nearly enough to do such dangerous work.”

Being the geek that I am I took the warrant and calculated exactly how much I will be paying for each of the line items in the town budget.  Then I went through each and asked “Is this worth it to me? Does this seem reasonable? What could happen if we cut this budget?”

After doing that I came to the conclusion that I get good value for the taxes I pay to the town.  Last year the town part of my property taxes was $1131.89; this year, if the budget is passed, my town taxes will be $1225.054 (based on the tax rate figures in the warrant.)  This is a $93.16 increase that covers the $250,000 for the Capital Road Plan to fix a part of Witchtrot Road.  The road is in very bad shape.  If we don’t fix it now, I’m worried it’s going to cost more in the future and in another year we will be facing an even bigger increase.  Eventually this will catch up to us.

I will be voting for a budget that holds the line on spending and keeps important services in place to maintain the quality of life in our town. I know there are some who would like to see the taxes reduced by a few hundred dollars from last year.  For my taxes to be reduced by $200, it would mean we would have to cut the budget by over $500,000.  For even a $100 reduction we would have to cut the budget by over $250,000. I firmly believe that if we cut town services to that degree it will noticeably reduce my quality of life here in South Berwick and threaten the value of my home.  I would rather save $200 dollars some other way.

Regardless of what you think about the budget, I hope you will go to Town Meeting on June 1, at 6:30 PM.  If you don’t attend, others will make the decision for you.

Below is the table of my calculations that show how much I will be paying on my taxes for the services that fall under each of the warrant articles.  This is based on my house, valued at $250,000 with an adjustment for a Homestead Exemption and a Veteran’s Exemption to bring the tax value to $232,900.  For each line item, I multiplied the Tax Rate by my home’s tax value divided by 1000 (232.9).
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