<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[Both Alan & Sarah here.]</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">But first, let's set the record straight: As Rob stated in an earlier message to the list (<A href="http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/2007-May/001831.html"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0B29D3">http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/2007-May/001831.html</FONT></A>), 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). </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So why the 18% increase? </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">(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. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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!</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">(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.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">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. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So read the budget. Look at the entries under each department. Think about the repercussions of cutting different expenses. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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? </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Each decision will have real financial consequences. Let's work together to figure out what the best choices are for the town. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>Alan & Sarah</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>