MANAGER’S BUDGET MESSAGE
FY 2007
To the Town
Council and Citizens of
The
following is a summary of the proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget. It should be noted that this budget has
undergone significant cuts since initially presented to me by Department Heads
and, of course, is subject to further revisions by the Town Council before
final adoption. Board and Committee
Budgets have not been reviewed by me and are subject to review by the Town
Council.
Much
of the budget increase throughout the departments is due to inflationary
costs. In that regard, this message will
not deal with every change but will touch on some of the more extraordinary
ones.
Town Council Directive
The
Freeport Town Council established budget caps of 4% for both the Municipal and
School budgets. During the past two
budget cycles the tax rate has either been held at no increase or lowered. The Council’s goal is to produce an operating
budget for fiscal year 2007 which will again maintain the tax rate at or below
the current level. That goal has been
accomplished.
The
impact on individual tax bills will be reflected in the valuation update which
is currently underway. The value of your
property will change but the overall amount of property taxes collected will
not increase as a result of the market update.
As property values are adjusted upward to reflect current market
conditions, the tax rate will drop from is current level of $17.90 per
thousand. Some property owners will see
little change in their tax bill while others will experience increases and
decreases. This will depend on the
determined assessed value of your property.
Another
challenge facing
REVENUES
Municipal
revenue increases result mainly from an increase in State Aid to Roads
resulting from state road turn backs and interest income resulting from higher
interest rates. All other municipal
revenues are flat. Twenty million
dollars in new valuation from residential and commercial development will
result in $358,000 in new tax revenue.
The
Town Council will be presented with a number of new revenue proposals during
budget workshops which if adopted, could lower the Town’s dependence on
property tax revenues.
EXPENDITURES
The
Municipal Budget was capped at 4% by the Town Council. In order to produce a combined School and
Municipal budget that maintains the current tax rate of $17.90, the Municipal
budget increase was held to 3.3%. Most
of the increase is due to a cost of living adjustment of 3.2% and adjustment in
fuel accounts. All fuel accounts have been adjusted by 35% to 40%.
In
addition, the Fire/Rescue Department budgets include a third full time
responder to be hired effective