Long Range Planning.

Its very hard to answer some good questions about the issues facing Derry in a condensed 30 second answer on a 60 minute TV show. I have listened to many of either mis-guided or mis-perceived statements that can not be answered in a sound bite and so I'm happy to be able to share more of what I'm thinking out to anyone who cares.

First, I heard Mr Carney say that because of lack of poor planning from councilors in the last 2-5 years, we will have a budget that will be at a 300K deficit.

Believe it or not, the reason for this is not the councilors lack of planning but the mere fact that the tax cap, which allows for an average of around 3% increases per year has finally come to where it is putting a squeeze on the budget.
Remember the towns budget is 80% personnel driven. With that in mind, health care for our employees has risen at double digits each and every year. Also, the COLA's and step increases has contributed to this issue as well.
These uncontrollable costs are not due to lack of planning!

I'm sure us older folk remember the old proposition 2.5 in Massachusetts back in the late 80's. The people voted to limit spending at an annual increase of no more 2.5% and the same problem they had are ending up here which the town face today.

Having said all of this, the tax cap has keep us in a financial check and balance by scrutinizing the budgets and making sure we spend on what is essential in running town government. This is a good thing and now the rubber has hit the road- meaning each year that passes, it will be harder and harder budgets to deal with and some very tough decisions to be made- Do we sacrifice services or capital projects- where we had no problems in the past by having enough for both- now it becomes harder to get both at current levels. This is where experience in the town will make a difference!

Having said that, all the candidates say that we need to bring economic development as a priority to this town. My question to them would be what is your plan? Some are already committed to not funding DEDC. OK then what would you do? Hire an director at 100K per year? coordinator for 50K? Once you have done that they will want a budget line to do the things they need to bring business in how much for that???
Need a secretary at 30K a year with that position don't you.

Folks, The three years as a councilor I have seen a net decrease in employees by 2.5 people. DO you support candidates that want to add more employees???

You can't just wave a magic wand and POOF businesses are up and running.

I suppose by being a councilor the last three years I can see the way things are going to come out. I do also understand that mis-conceptions can happen to some who have never seen the full picture from the inside.

This is not the fault of the present or past councilors and to say so is not a fair statement. They don't control health care costs or retirement costs for that matter and every town and city are having the very same issues and each year brings a new set of issues, hard issues and big decisions. However the election goes, it will be very interesting to see how things end up for FY08.