One more official night for the Budget season….Public Hearing on the School Board budget was Tuesday and the Town Budget one is tonight. Then my elected responsibility is done for the year.
At the last regular meeting, I sorta tied things up for a bunch of people who might have thought it was going to be a quick meeting. I fulfilled my promise at the meeting previous to that one when someone said "ah, quick meeting next week" and I promptly said that I would be bringing a bunch of motions with me. And I did – about $1.4 million in cuts (just under $500K for the Town and about $1.1M for the School Board).
For context, the Town budget is about $11M but essentially came in flat over last year. The School Board came in 3.5% above last year, which did not set well as I DO have an agenda every single BudComm season:
- The Budget Committee is the last bastion of defense on behalf of taxpayer wallets
- Government spending should not be larger than the average family’s rise in income.
Roughly, I figure, that is about the rate of inflation. Thus, the School Board was 3 X my "limit".
Well, I lost all of my motions to cut ANYTHING; most failed either 7-5 or 8-4. I thank the other conservatives on the BudComm in standing with me. I will not aid the faux Conservatives no matter what their silver-tongues may try next time.
I did brighten up when I read the local weekly newspaper that just came out – their editorial had me front and center:
"…A budget that goes through with no friction often leads to an uninformed public, so to shed light on any particular aspect of the budget is a job well done – even if those efforts amount to nothing on paper.
…Murphy may have been in the minority in seeking more reductions, but that doesn’t mean he was wrong to do so. In fact, those taxpayers who are hurting the most deserve someone like Murphy standing up for them by looking at every possible cut."
I thank the editorial writer at the Gilford Steamer for the kind words.
