Well, that Honey-Do list is still hanging over my head. I wish I would have known all the rules before I got started with that deal. Do you realize that as you complete items on the list, more can be added on? In other words, the list never ends. In fact it can actually grow bigger. Why would anyone want to work on something you can never complete? Actually, when you think about it, municipal government is very similar.
We’ve just completed this year’s budget, and already the preparation is starting for next year. Over the next three months I and the rest of council will receive lots of unsolicited advice for next year’s budget. There will be those who will suggest that we didn’t cut enough this year and they will be trying to make sure we understand that people cannot continue to pay the current taxes on their fixed incomes. There will also be those who think we cut too much and don’t want to see us lose any more services. They however, don’t want to pay any more taxes either. If I could just remember where I put that magic wand I used to have. I’ll add tracking that down to my Honey-Do list.
One thing I learned many years ago when preparing budgets is that you should always consider the things you know you will be facing in the following year’s budget. When I looked at everything this year, I tried to consider the changes we would have to try to overcome next year. I’d like to share some of the challenges we will be facing.
The reduction in the state revenue sharing and the additional school funding actually accounted for more than the total property tax increase we experienced this year. Without them, we would have probably ended up with a tax decrease. The bad news is we already know there will be a further decrease in revenue sharing next year. It is expected to drop an additional $150,000. This year we received a $134,000 dividend from the Tri-Community Landfill. This was a one-time dividend that we will not be receiving next year. Just these two items alone represent a $284,000 reduction in revenue for next year.
On the expense side we’ve done two one-time projects this year for approximately $275,000. The money to cover these was taken from reserve accounts and had little to no effect on your current tax bill, and although we won’t have to do them next year, you can bet there will be something else to take their place. All you have to do is take a look at our current City Hall building. The windows are literally falling out of the building, the floors on the main level are terrible, and the police dept. headquarters is a disaster.
Conservatively we will probably end up spending $100,000 on unplanned projects that turn up for next year and there are no longer excess funds in the reserve accounts, so anything we do will affect next year’s tax bill. The health care experts are projecting increased health insurance premium increases for next year of anywhere from 8 to 20 percent. Conservatively, this will probably amount to an increase of $100,000 in our expenses.
Let’s not forget our school system, based on the reduction of funding by the state government and past school budgets, it would be fair to estimate the local taxpayers will have to pick up an additional $150,000 in expenses for our educational system as well next year.
Well that didn’t take long. There’s $634,000 that the city administration and council will have to find just to maintain this year’s tax rate, and we haven’t even looked at the possibilities of increases in our liability insurance, gas and diesel prices, heating fuel costs, asphalt, wages, salt and sand, etc. Past history would suggest there is a better chance that these will increase rather than decrease. That means we are looking at close to a 2-mil increase just to maintain services at their present level.
So, fasten your seat belts, unless that magic wand shows up, it’s going to be a long rough ride to get through the next budget season.
Hope I didn’t spoil the rest of your summer!
This column is strictly the opinion or view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of the city of Caribou’s administration staff, its employees, or other council members. Gary Aiken may be reached at garyaiken@hotmail.com.
