[RP TownTalk] Budget Proposal

[Rob Oppenheim]

The town's pay scales appear to be flawed. When I voted for the civilian
scale, I was told it was a 2% step increase. Somehow this has become 
an average pay increase of about 10% and for some groups 20%.
 
The new council would do well to suspend the pay scales until
they can be reviewed and revised and enact a 2% merit and 2% cola
increase for the coming year. This would save about $90,000. Since
some salaries might need to be adjusted to be competitive, set
aside $30,000 of this savings for salary review and adjustments.
 
Here is a proposal to hold the tax increase to about 15%, 
which would allow the tax rate to be the same as last year.
(The increase in assessments will still increase tax revenues 15%.)
 
1) Suspend the pay scales and give a 2% merit and 2% cola and 
   set aside $30,000 for pay adjustments (Approx. savings $60,000).
2) Indefinitely delay the recreation buildings and town hall changes 
   and return the loan money. Savings $41,000.
3) Delay buying police cars and SUVs. Sell the surplus of cars we have 
   now. (We have 12 fairly new cars already and with only 3 officers 
   per shift we can easily get by with that). Approx. savings $25,000.
4) Reduce front office staff by 1 full time clerk. Hire one part time. 
   (Net of 1 full time and 2 part time employees). Saving about $24,000.
5) Delay hiring an assistant administrator and police chief until at 
   least September. Approx. savings $30,000.
6) Increase the apt inspection fee from $75 to $90. Approx. additional 
   revenue $15,000.
7) Implement other cuts that were identified in the budget by the council.
   Saving approx. $30,000.
8) Share the police car computer network access for on-duty officers 
   only (need about 8 cards instead of 18) Saving approx. $8,000.
 
The above totals about $202,000 in savings, enough to reduce the tax rate 
to 63.8 cents. Flushing out the details might eat up some of that savings,
so we would probably end up with the same tax rate as last year of 64.1.
 
Over the next year, the following can be enacted:
 
Set up new tax classifications (Commercial, Apartments, Residential) 
so that next year the tax rates can be set differently for each of these.
 
Direct the police to find police cars that have higher fuel
efficiency to reduce the $75,000/year gasoline costs.
 
Require that a promotion resets the annual review date to the
anniversary of the promotion to prevent compounding promotions 
and step increases.
 
Require that any increase in salary over 8% in a year for an
individual first be approved by the council.
 
Revise the pay scale and set a policy that mass adjustments
must be phased in over 2 or 3 years.
 
Find other taxes that can be increased that distribute the costs more
fairly than increases in real estate taxes.

Find out why some of the apartment buildings in town are assessed for less 
than their 2006 sale price. As an example, Park Tanglewood is assessed
at $10,780,400 (for 2007) but it was sold in August of 2006 for $11,390,000 
or about $600,000 more than its assessed value. (FYI, It has 179 units).
 
Rob Oppenheim
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