Town Taxes and Budget for 2009
Submitted by kfwadmin on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 9:36pm
Kent Fiscal Watch has monitored the Town of Kent’s budget process, and commented thereon, for the past three years. We obtained a copy of Supervisor Doherty’s Tentative Budget for 2009, filed with the Town Clerk on September 30, 2008. A number of our members reviewed this budget and Maryholt Maxwell, Joyce Mitchell and Cliff Narbey attended some or all (respectively) of the Budget Workshops, on October 23, 28 and 30 and November 3.
Our comments follow:
A. As we have noted before, the current Town Board is a more cohesive and workmanlike group. The budget review at the workshops was better and more thorough than in the previous two years.
This Town Board and the Town Accountant have finally corrected the improper cost accounting and expense allocation in the Central Garage, so we will now see a more accurate cost of vehicle maintenance, running expenses and upkeep for the user departments (Police, Highway, Parks and Recreation, Sanitation and Town Hall departments). This item has been a consistent recommendation of KFW.
The Town Board, without fanfare, has implemented improvements in internal controls over vehicle fuel, tires and parts and labor. Software to track repair and operating costs of each Town vehicle has been purchased and utilization is commencing. Some contracting has been reviewed and improved (e.g. geothermal systems). The Board is to be complimented on these improvements.
The Tentative Budget proposed total expenditures of $16,896,633 (up $918,788 or 5.44% from the 2008 Approved Budget), including capital expense and all Special Districts. Revenue other than real property taxes was proposed at $3,574,435 (up $1,120,292 or 45.65% from the 2008 Approved Budget). Accordingly, the Tax Levy (amount to be raised by real property taxes) was proposed to be $14,240,986 (up $73,496 or 0.5% - that’s one half of one percent - from the 2008 Approved Budget). Not exactly a zero increase in taxes, but pretty close.
The budget reviews added a few items of expense ($15,000 for Planning for code changes, $10,000 for Celebrations, $8,000 for Assessor for medical insurance) and reduced a few items ($18,518 for Police payroll, $2,000 for Assessor contractual, $2,000 for Town Clerk equipment), a negligible net aggregate addition of $10, 482.
A 9.2% overall increase is proposed for the Highway Department, as costs of petroleum products (fuel, asphalt & blacktop, plastic pipe, heating oil) together with sand and salt for winter are increasing by significant sums; reallocation of highway expenses from road maintenance to snow clearing modifies some of these, but leaves our road infrastructure subject to deterioration. A C.H.I.P.S. grant of $177,364 is anticipated, which will offset some of the increased costs.
A number of departments were held to a zero increase over the 2008 Approved Budget (the Library, the Recycling Center, Legal, Personnel, Engineering, Printing & Mailing, Unallocated Insurance, Judgements & Claims, Contingencies, Programs For The Aging, Stormwater, Landfill, Post-retirement Benefits).
Reductions were made in Recreation (as certain underutilized programs were eliminated, to be reinstated on a zero basis cost after user fees, if demand develops), Town Center Complex Building Operations & Maintenance and the Parks Department (both because equipment needs have been satisfied), Town Code and Planning (as the Master Plan and other issues are substantially complete), Historian (as Town funds for the new Kent Historical Center are not renewed), Dog Control, Beautification.
Overall payroll was increased by across-the-board raises capped at 3%, plus attendant payroll taxes and benefit costs.
The Library screened an excellent Power Point presentation and a somewhat detailed budget in financial statement format, setting a standard that all Town departments should aspire to.
B.
There is no attempt at zero-based budget. Much of the budget appears to be set by reference to prior year’s levels, without reference to the underlying use of the funds.
Personnel headcounts are not provided for review and no effort appears to be made to find ways to reduce payroll (even with reductions in service), or most non-payroll expenses.
The Board does not review all departments’ and Special Districts’ budgets. This year, there was no review of a long list of departments and cost centers - the Town Board itself, Supervisor, Justice Court, Finance, Tax Collector, Budget Officer, Law, Personnel, Engineering, Buildings Operations & Maintenance, the new item of Central Data Processing (what the heck is that?), Unallocated Insurance (how the heck can it be unallocated?), Judgement & Claims, Town Code, Contingencies (is $100,000 sufficient - way less than 1%?) Fire Marshall, Dog Control, Street Lighting, Programs For The Aging, Historian, Zoning Board, Code Enforcement, Stormwater, Landfill, Recycling Center, Beautification, Grants to Participating Municipalities (what the heck is that?), Post-retirement Benefits (a $311,108 item), Lake Carmel Fire Department, Kent Fire Department, Lake Camel Sanitation District, Lake Carmel Park District and the 2 Water Districts (they reviewed the immaterial Lake Tibet Park District!!) and all Capital Expenditures. Thus, taxpayers know little or nothing about these expenses.
There was no review of most of the non-tax revenues.
There was no mention of utilizing the $1 million plus surplus generated in 2007.
There is little or no consideration of sharing resources with other towns, the County and State, or the schools (including BOCES).
Budget control would be enhanced by using a Purchase Order system (expenditure approved before the goods/services received), rather than the Voucher system (expenditure approved after the goods/services received).
Some department managers appeared to have little idea about their department’s respective expenses, thus limiting the effectiveness of the Board’s review.
The Tentative Budget, when amended by the changes detailed above and certain “tweaking” by the Town Accountant, becomes the Preliminary Budget. The Town Board will hold a Public Hearing on the Preliminary Budget at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. We urge all taxpayers to come to that hearing.
New items saw a large increase in the Justice Court ($248,000), which will be more than offset by increased State rebates of fines and forfeited bail, a new item named Central Data Processing ($60,000), a new item called Grants To Participating Municipalities ($11,518).
This was originally posted on 11/06/2008 by Cliff Narbey
