http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110119/NEWS02/701199866
Published January 19, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Select Board approves $10.4 million town budget
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — If voters agree with the Springfield Select Board, town taxes will go up slightly less than 4 percent.
The board approved a $10.4 million spending plan Monday night, including a $9.2 million operating budget and $1.2 million in capital expenditures. Taxes would go up 3.83 percent, according to Town Manager Robert Forguites.
The vote to approve the budget was 4-1, with Selectman Michael Knoras voting against the spending plan.
After his vote, Knoras said he wanted more cuts in the Police Department, in particular the custodian contract for the police station on Clinton Street.
“I think some areas could still stand an adjustment,” said Knoras.
The board has been working on the budget proposed by Forguites for two weeks, haggling over some details and accepting other spending plans with few questions, with the constant struggle of dealing with deferred maintenance.
The police budget was a natural target because its operating budget was up more than any other department except for the Public Works Department and the board said it was working with the goal of a level-funded budget. The budget does not call for any wage increase for town employees aside from merit or step increases.
The capital budget is a big portion of the increase in the town budget, which has had tiny increases in the past several years.
The board set aside $500,000 toward resurfacing town roads, after several years of forgoing paving.
Harry Henderson, the town public works director, had initially asked for a $4 million bond to fund paving for almost every road in town, but the board rejected Henderson’s ambitious plan, saying it was too expensive for the town.
Forguites outlined several financial shifts in the budget that he and town comptroller Jeffrey Mobus devised to lessen the tax impact, including using leftover funds from the police station/Town Hall bond issue of 2007 to pay for the new boilers to heat the station.
Funds set aside to pave Summer Street was shifted to the general budget since the town was successful in getting state funds to pave the road, which is a state highway.
Much of the discussion Monday night focused on a relative modest amount — the annual $20,000 contribution to Springfield On The Move, the nonprofit downtown group.
For the past two years, voters have approved the annual appropriation via a special article on the town warning, but the group had asked the town to put the money in the budget, citing its increased membership and activity.
Larry Kraft, chairman of the Springfield On The Move board, asked the selectmen to include the group in the budget as a sign that the town officials supported their activities. State approval of designated downtown groups calls for local support, Forguites noted.
Mary Helen Hawthorne, the former executive director of Springfield On The Move and the former chairwoman of the Select Board, also used the board to include the $20,000 in the capital budget, as the town routinely included $30,000 for Springfield Regional Development Corp., another nonprofit group working on behalf of the town.
In the end, the board agreed to put the $20,000 in the budget.
But Selectwoman Terri Benton said she was in favor of the annual vote for the money, saying it was a small organization and townspeople had a right to decide whether it would fund the downtown group.
Kraft and Hawthorne said the group was able to leverage millions of dollars of investment in downtown Springfield, including the rebuilding of the Ellis Block and the Springfield Movie Theater, which is slated to reopen this summer, and the other major construction project in town, the redevelopment of the former Fellows Gear Shaper complex.
Select Board approves $10.4 million town budget
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — If voters agree with the Springfield Select Board, town taxes will go up slightly less than 4 percent.
The board approved a $10.4 million spending plan Monday night, including a $9.2 million operating budget and $1.2 million in capital expenditures. Taxes would go up 3.83 percent, according to Town Manager Robert Forguites.
The vote to approve the budget was 4-1, with Selectman Michael Knoras voting against the spending plan.
After his vote, Knoras said he wanted more cuts in the Police Department, in particular the custodian contract for the police station on Clinton Street.
“I think some areas could still stand an adjustment,” said Knoras.
The board has been working on the budget proposed by Forguites for two weeks, haggling over some details and accepting other spending plans with few questions, with the constant struggle of dealing with deferred maintenance.
The police budget was a natural target because its operating budget was up more than any other department except for the Public Works Department and the board said it was working with the goal of a level-funded budget. The budget does not call for any wage increase for town employees aside from merit or step increases.
The capital budget is a big portion of the increase in the town budget, which has had tiny increases in the past several years.
The board set aside $500,000 toward resurfacing town roads, after several years of forgoing paving.
Harry Henderson, the town public works director, had initially asked for a $4 million bond to fund paving for almost every road in town, but the board rejected Henderson’s ambitious plan, saying it was too expensive for the town.
Forguites outlined several financial shifts in the budget that he and town comptroller Jeffrey Mobus devised to lessen the tax impact, including using leftover funds from the police station/Town Hall bond issue of 2007 to pay for the new boilers to heat the station.
Funds set aside to pave Summer Street was shifted to the general budget since the town was successful in getting state funds to pave the road, which is a state highway.
Much of the discussion Monday night focused on a relative modest amount — the annual $20,000 contribution to Springfield On The Move, the nonprofit downtown group.
For the past two years, voters have approved the annual appropriation via a special article on the town warning, but the group had asked the town to put the money in the budget, citing its increased membership and activity.
Larry Kraft, chairman of the Springfield On The Move board, asked the selectmen to include the group in the budget as a sign that the town officials supported their activities. State approval of designated downtown groups calls for local support, Forguites noted.
Mary Helen Hawthorne, the former executive director of Springfield On The Move and the former chairwoman of the Select Board, also used the board to include the $20,000 in the capital budget, as the town routinely included $30,000 for Springfield Regional Development Corp., another nonprofit group working on behalf of the town.
In the end, the board agreed to put the $20,000 in the budget.
But Selectwoman Terri Benton said she was in favor of the annual vote for the money, saying it was a small organization and townspeople had a right to decide whether it would fund the downtown group.
Kraft and Hawthorne said the group was able to leverage millions of dollars of investment in downtown Springfield, including the rebuilding of the Ellis Block and the Springfield Movie Theater, which is slated to reopen this summer, and the other major construction project in town, the redevelopment of the former Fellows Gear Shaper complex.
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