New preliminary numbers are getting noticed for Derry's upcoming 09 budget. As most are aware of the Town's tax cap, which is tied into the CPI ( consumer price index ) and are allowed to be raised up to that determined number.
It looks like that number will be 2.7%. meaning on town side only, Councilors will be only allowed to raise town side taxes by 2.7% maximum.
Last year it was 3.3% however the council choose to raise only by 1.9%.
My understanding is that in dollar terms, we are allowed to increase by $765,000 or so however with the town being 80-85% personal driven and with Cost of living increases, health insurance costs and everything else for projects, we have a bill of about $800,000 coming. Meaning....
Another tight tight budget and as it stands right now....
a shortfall of about $35,000.
It will be interesting to see how things get played out this year in budget time.
Some Questions like how will the largest Elderly exemption be paid for? How much will others have to pay for this potential give away? How much money will the bike path people want? $80,000? $100,000?
When will we have contracts with our seven unions?
How much will we be billed for the retirement funds this year?
How much will our taxes go up if we don't get the state ed money we got last year
( rumor has it we will have to make up $2Mil locally. That's .80Cent to $1.00 increase)
How does kindergarten affect our tax rate- How does Pinkertons new freshman wing effect us?
Stayed tuned everyone. Stay informed and enjoy the tax decrease you got this year ( as small as that was)
Things are going to get interesting in the town of Derry!
8 comments:
BC,
If I understand your math correctly ($800K), you are assuming about a 2.5% increase on the 80-85% of the budget. That 2.5%sounds (???) like that would only cover salary increases - not healthcare and retirement benefits.
On another note - what about the senior and rec centers? I would definitly put that ahead of the bike path.
anon 7:30,
To be honest It will be hard to do any of these projects. Where do you get the money? Only way is to bond outside of the cap-which has never been done before. And ontop of that Bonding will require a 2/3 vote. It will be interesting to see how things progress.
also i do think health care and retirment costs are included but at last years numbers. If there are any differences- well you can see what we are up against here.
BC,
I was surfing the internet the other day and came across an interesting web site. Maybe you and your fellow bloggers should go to www.derrypoliceunion.com
It's time for Ed Garone to move on... you is not doing anything to progree the police department. Im surprised they haven't taken a vote of no confidence in him yet.
Remember the officer that was flown by helicopter to Boston after he was struck by a vehicle?
Ed Garone did not even once go to the hospital to see how his officer was doing. The Boston police department sent representative to be at the hospital encase the officer's family needed anything.
What did Ed Garone do? NOTHING. It's pretty pathetic how he treats his officers.
Did Ed Garone attend any of the retirement parties for his officers that recently retired?
NO HE DID NOT. Never even stopped by to thank them or their families.
It's time for "Mayor" Garone to move on. Let's bring in some fresh blood to help our police department move into the 21st century. It's time for the Derry Police Department to quit being laughed at by other departments across the state.
anon 7:28,
For the officers who have retired recently, I would just like to say thank-you for your service. Thanks for protecting our streets and neighborhoods and Thanks for doing what you do for our community. It sounds to me that by the last post you guys never get compliments or thanks from the community- Nobody appreciates what you do. But I do. Even if the police union endorsed the guy who ran against me because they were upset at me- Doesn't matter. You are all professionals and we are proud of all of you.
Why are we talking about this fake moral issue again - there must be an election coming up.
I also respect and appreciate the job that is done by the police. It certainly can be dangerous work as we saw again this year and it’s often a thankless job.
However, if the union considers this to be such an important issue, why did they just sign a new contract with the town? In my experience with unions this would be how and where to address issues like this. You put the issue on the bargaining table and you fight for it.
I think the union is out of line in looking for action from the town council (who are clearly forbidden by our town charter from getting involved directly in this) or the town administrator on an issue they were apparently unwilling or unable to fight for themselves in their current contract negotiations. If in fact this issue has been brewing for years, they shouldn’t keep signing contracts without it being resolved.
I for one am tired of hearing about this issue every 6 months or so. We never see any objective evidence to support their claims, no union grievances, no statements from the departing officers and now they have just signed a new contract agreement with the town. Why?
The current contract is only a 1 year deal (expires June of ’08). The union can fight for this themselves in only 6 months. If they won’t, no one else should.
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