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RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Town of Hamilton

Letter: Darby Explains Town Budget

Thu, Nov 03, 2011

(The Town of) Hamilton is working with a challenging budget, so the town council has scheduled a dedicated meeting in the court house for Wednesday, Nov 9, at 7 p.m. The public is invited to ask questions.

In developing this year's budget, I convened a committee of the full board and all the candidates in this year's election. My purpose was: 1) to broaden public input in a manageable way; 2) to start the transition process for the new board members so whoever is elected will have a beginning understanding of the town finances and the budget. 3) to develop a broad consensus for what I knew would be a difficult budget. I think the effort was successful.

The appropriation is not the problem. It is 2% higher that the 2011 budget but 1% lower than the 2009 budget. The problem is that, because last year's budget used $175,000 from savings to offset the tax burden, the budget ended the year in deficit. This is not sustainable. The proposed budget received broad consensus support from the four sitting town councilors and all the candidates who believe that it builds a base for future budgets that can avoid large swings in the tax levy.

The estimated tax rates are $1.92 per $1,000 of assessed value—or $192 for a $100,000 home-- for the villages and $2.92 per $1,000 of assessed value for properties outside the villages. Because of the erratic nature of the reval, I can give no estimate of the impact on individual properties but many property owners will see a significant increase in taxes.

Peter Darby, Deputy Supervisor and Budget Officer

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