[RP TownTalk] Improvements will save money in the long term

[Alan Thompson and Sarah Wayland]

[Both Alan & Sarah here.]

We'd like to raise some issues about the draft budget that haven't  
yet been discussed, and in particular, we want to point out that the  
actions of the current mayor council were actually made to SAVE the  
town hundreds of thousands of dollars over the long term.

But first, let's set the record straight: As Rob stated in an earlier  
message to the list (http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/ 
2007-May/001831.html), the tax hike is not 27%, at least not for most  
people. It is, for the overwhelming majority of people in town, 18%  
(10% increase in assessment (limited by the homestead tax credit), 7%  
increase in tax rate on that higher value, plus a little math ((home  
value * 1.10)*1.07) gives you 18% total).

While "normal people" will pay 18%, those who hold real estate as  
investments -- the owners of rental property and commercial property  
-- will pay more (enough to bring the average increase up to the 27%  
mentioned earlier). These are people who should be able (as good  
business people) to take care of themselves. The few families who  
bought houses in town in the last year will also see a more than 18%  
increase in their taxes.  (We are guessing this is roughly 30  
families, though a real-estate agent could easily answer the  
question.) The amount of increase they see depends on the  
circumstances of their individual assessments - no easy  
generalizations can be made here.

So why the 18% increase?

(1) The town is paying for much needed town-wide road improvements.  
These road improvements have been a long time coming. Those of you  
who have been complaining about disintegrating roads, crumbling  
curbs, and uneven sidewalks know that the town has, for years, been  
applying a patchwork approach to street improvements. The outgoing  
council decided to invest in infrastructure improvements that will be  
safer, nice to look at, and will make it easier to get around.

But even as we are spending money on improvements now, the outgoing  
council and mayor also worked to save the town money a lot of money  
over the long term.  By locking in a loan at low interest rates, and  
by putting a *large* project out for bid, we as a town have already  
saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Indeed, the town had guessed  
around $1.3 million for the initial round of infrastructure repairs,  
and the winning bid came in a little under $1 million. That means  
that by putting a large project up for bid, we've already SAVED over  
$300,000! That's creative problem solving!

But this work does come at a cost. If the town were not paying off  
the loan for infrastructure improvements, the tax rate would actually  
be 2.5% LOWER than it was last year.  That being said, the council  
(including Rob Oppenheim) could see that the repairs were necessary,  
and that by doing them as described above, the town could save a lot  
of money. For this reason, they voted to perform the road improvements.

(2) The draft budget submitted by Mayor Archer is a composite of the  
budgets submitted by each department. As is typical in the federal  
budget process, Mayor Archer went to each department and said, "What  
do you need?" The department heads submitted their wish lists, and he  
put them together (trimming some requests) to create the draft budget.

And now the council, mayor, citizens, and department heads must do  
the hard work of balancing expenditures from each department's budget  
against revenues. In this way, we will come up with a reasonable  
final budget that the town can afford. This means further cutting  
from each department's draft budget in a way that still allows them  
to do their job.

For these reasons, we too think it is critical that citizens come to  
the budget hearing and help the council, mayor, and department heads  
to understand our priorities.  But, we need to bear in mind that  
there are tough choices to be made.

So read the budget. Look at the entries under each department. Think  
about the repercussions of cutting different expenses.

Do you want our police to patrol more? Do you want public works to  
maintain our public spaces? Do you want our town employees to be paid  
a living wage?

Each decision will have real financial consequences. Let's work  
together to figure out what the best choices are for the town.

	Alan & Sarah

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