The Draft Town Budget for Fiscal Year 2008/09 was reviewed by the Town Council on August 20, 2008 and public comment was received. The Town Council will consider adopting the FY 2008/09 on September 3, 2008 and will take more public input at that time. The highlights of the draft budget are:
1. It is balanced and maintains current staffing levels for all current services;
2. Requests a 2-year limited term management analyst position for the purpose of working 75% of the time on finance and budget matters and 25% of the time on continuing to acquire the FEMA monies needed to complete 5 outstanding projects related to the December 31, 2005 floods. The position also will work on grant writing and implementation. Any grants received will be used to offset the general fund cost of this position. Total salary and benefits is $110,000 per year;
3. Adds the Town Treasurer Fund to compensate our Town Treasurer at $5,135 per year. Prior Town Treasurers worked for no pay and had no defined responsibilities in the Town Code. On August 6, 2008, the Town Council adopted a resolution detailing specific duties and setting compensation for the Town Treasurer;
4. Requests $5,000 for a one time stipend for a student intern to work on the economic sustainability plan;
5. Requests $5,000 per year for a minutes clerk for the Town Council meetings;
6. Continues to move forward with Capital Projects that were deferred last year;
7. Funds the Energy Efficiency Project for retrofitting town facilities;
8. Proposed Total General Fund expenditures for FY 08/09 are $6,890,936 with estimated revenues of $6,895,484. In contrast the adopted FY 07/08 total general fund operating expenditures were $6,908,989 or about the same expenditure level as requested for FY 2008/09
9. Eliminates need for borrowing monies from outside sources for cash flow purposes (saves Town $43,000 per year) due to adequate Dry Period Fund.
10. Eliminates the need for the use of general fund money for flood related projects from the December 31, 2005 floods. The Town staff (management analyst) recovered $202,000 in FY 2007/08 from FEMA and continues to work hard to recover the remaining funds needed to finish the five FEMA projects.
The next Town Council Meeting will be September 3, 2008 at 7:30 PM in the Women's Club. The Council will consider adopting the Town FY 2008/09 Budget at this meeting.
