Tonight Paris' Budget Committee held a public hearing at the end of their several week preparation process for the town's annual budget. A verbal summary [see Sun Journal 4-7-10 "Hearing set for Paris budget"] was presented by Town Manager Phil Tarr, followed by additional remarks by committee chair Vic Hodgkins. The actual budget now goes on to the selectboard, where it will be formally approved and then printed in the annual report for the voters in June. Possibly a copy of the budget might be available before that; a call to the town office would confirm that.
The design of much of the budget committee's work is quite black and white: the overseeing of a compilation of budget figures put together by the town manager to operate the town for another year. It is preceeded and facilitated by several weeks of gathering and laying out information by the financial officer and municipal department heads; typing and retyping by staff, and then followed by several more weeks of discussion and questions by the committee.
Most of us as tax payers can only tread water in the manner of keeping up. We can only be trusting - and grateful.
The public audience tonight was tiny - probably to be expected since the hearing was simply perfunctory.
But: some un-black-and-white comments managed to emerge.
Despite the fact that it is not in the job description of the budget committee's role, after the financial presentation, the topic of The Big Picture suddenly materialized in the room. Not the time, you sticklers for detail say? OK....so when?
The question came in the context of ever increasing expenses, with a limited number of property owners paying the bill out of income that cannot be predicted to rise at the same rate as those expenses.
For example, this year's budget is 2.6% higher than last year's, and this upward trend will most likely continue. Selectman Skip Herrick estimated that as few as 50% of the people in town pay the taxes for the town. Is this a dependable source for the long run?
After pointing out that, over the last 10 years, budgets - and taxes - have increased 55%, and adding his concern about the years ahead, Selectman Ted Kurtz asked a thought-provoking question : "My question is directed toward, not the expense side, but the supply side; where the money's coming from. I'm just interested in to what extent the budget committee's work includes an assessment of that factor."
If assessing the source of the income to be budgeted is not in the purview of this committee, in whose purview is it? And when would such a discussion take place? A whole lot of Paris tax payers would want to be part of that discussion.
