Community Corner

East Hampton Board of Finance Focuses on Budget

Discussion suggests some cuts might be coming.

 

The East Hampton Board of Finance met on Tuesday night to discuss and deliberate the fiscal year 2012-13 town budget.

The $39.084 million budget calls for a 3.74 percent increase or .96 mills.

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Though the board wasn’t about to make any decisions at the meeting, one could get a general feeling for what might be coming in the next couple of weeks.

“It’s never easy. I don’t think it will be easy this year,” board member Timothy Csere said. “Based on our current economic climate, the unemployment rate, food, gas, oil prices, I think the present increase of 3.74 percent or .96 mills is a bit aggressive. In view of the budget information we did receive, I would like to dig deeper on a couple items.”

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Among those was hiring a new town engineer.

“This is a high cost position. In theory it could be beneficial to our town,” Csere said, adding that he would like to see more information, such as a job description.

The cost for the position, including benefits, is $109,000. With a reduction in contracted engineering services, the overall increase to the budget is $64,000.

Interim Town Manager John Weichsel did say that Public Works Director Keith Hayden had provided the town with a detailed write-up of the position, which he would provide to the board.

“I think this would be a great item for our new town manager to look into,” Csere said.

Doing so would effectively shelve the idea until next year, which wouldn’t be the first time. According to board member Patience Anderson, the idea of hiring a town engineer was proposed two years ago as well.

The school budget, which is $27,238,340, a 3.92 percent increase, also caught the eye of some on the board, including Csere. Csere raised the possibility of not replacing three teachers that will be retiring at the end of the school year.

“These retirements were not expected and I must believe that losing employees through attrition is a better way to go,” he said. “If we have to modify the staff, it would be a great time to do it.”

According to School Superintendent Dr. Judith Golden, one of the teachers retiring is a health teacher, a position that will have to be filled.

Ultimately, however, the board of finance can not tell the board of education where to make its cuts to the budget.

“Remember, as I always say, it is up to the board of education how they would reduce their budget,” Golden said.

Golden did go on to stress the importance of keeping its current teaching staff where it is currently at.

“The class size right now are averaging 21, 22, which is a little above the state average,” she said. “In a perfect world I would not touch our classroom teachers across the board.”

Anderson also thought the proposed budget would have to be cut, citing the continued negative impact the economy has had on residents. As an example, Anderson pointed to tax collection rates, which have trended downward.

“Traditionally under a mill has been received well,” she said. “Although we are very prudent and very careful where we invest our dollars, I do think we as a town need to go a step further and actually make some sacrifices.”

Board member Ted Turner thought so, too, pointing to the board of education’s budget as being a bit high.

The board of finance had hoped to get feedback from residents at the meeting, but other than members of the town council and board of ed, none attended. There will be other opportunities in the coming weeks for residents to have their say, beginning on Monday at 7 p.m. at the middle school library.

Poorly attended budget meetings are nothing new and complicated the process last year, when the proposed budget was initially defeated by four votes.

“I think that’s the one component missing here,” Anderson said of feedback from residents. “In general, I think people just don’t pay attention to the budget until almost two weeks before the budget [referendum].”

And that might be true with any town. Portland recently held a public hearing to present information on its budget and one resident attended.

Residents are reminded they can get budget information at the town website.


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