Budget will be the Focus of East Hampton Board of Finance Meeting

The East Hampton Board of Finance will hold a special meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the middle school library.

With a deadline looming on whether to accept the town manager’s proposed $38.2 million budget for fiscal year 2012, the board made it clear Monday night that it is considering making cuts.

The proposed budget calls for a mill increase of .22 or a tax increase of .85 percent. However, this is based on the mill rate for 2010‐2011 having been restated, or adjusted, to reflect property value changes as a result of the October 2010 property revaluation which saw the total grand list decrease about 3.3 percent.

A mill adjustment of .83 is needed to in order generate the same amount of taxes in FY 2012 as was budgeted for in FY 2011.

This adjustment, plus the proposed .22 mill hike, is an increase to 26.03 mills, or 1.05 mills over FY 2011 when approved at referendum.

The combined town, education and transfer budget increase totals approximately $185,895 or 0.49 percent higher than the current year’s budget.

Wanting to approve a budget that was sensitive to the needs of residents because of the financial burden the economy has caused, the board seemed divided at its meetings on March 21 and 22 as to whether this proposal met that test. At the same time, they expressed some frustration that they had received little feedback from the public.

Board member George Pfaffenbach favored submitting the budget as is.

“If we don’t do this we put ourselves up against the eight ball every year by not funding what’s really needed for the town. If we don’t pass these budgets and allow the town to move forward and pay for things as we go along we just get deeper and deeper in the hole and we end up two or three years from now looking for a huge mill rate increase,” Pfaffenbach said at the March 22 meeting. Our expenses go up every year, our contracts go up every year. It’s pretty impractical to think you can fund it with less money than you did the year before when the expenses go up. That doesn’t make sense to me. There has to be some growth in the revenue the town brings in.”

On Monday, however, the board appeared to tilt toward making cuts. Cutting $242,000 would hold spending to the same level as FY 2011 meaning a zero percent increase.

With the board of education seeking a 2.8 percent increase in spending, any significant cuts would in all probability, put a bull’s-eye on its budget request.

The one constant refrain from the board of finance has been that they want to hear from residents. Tuesday night allows the public another opportunity to be heard.