I have some serious concerns about the town budget presented so far. As the town board went through to find possible cuts, the main items, on a page all to itself were: considering eliminating town garbage and recycling and making us all have to find private carters; not filling vacancies for police, highway, building dept.; program reductions; eliminating benefits for part-time elected officials. While they said these are not recommendations YET but they might have to consider if further reductions are needed. Not once did I hear anyone on the board suggest a freeze in the board salaries. When I asked what the proposed salary for the bookkeeper is, I was told it we would see it at the reorg meeting – well after the budget is decided and passed.

It is rolled into the budget line “Supervisor Salaries”. So, we won’t know what the supervisor’s projected salary for 2027 is either. Seems very sneaky to me. I also asked why the budget officer, always the supervisor, was seeing a raise from a $4800 stipend to $10,000. I got no response. And that same $4800 budget line has to date spent $7407. Again, no explanation. For a town that wants to promote growth, even thinking about eliminating town services would make me not want to settle here if I was looking. If I was an employee I might start to look elsewhere in case getting laid off was in the future plans. The board felt all the questions were addressed and they were ready to have the preliminary budget be prepared and cancelled the Oct 15th budget workshop, thereby also eliminating another opportunity for residents to ask questions. Our services are not extras, our town employees work very hard to make this town what it is. Not truly looking for reductions that will not affect the quality of life is very telling.

Even more telling is expecting the rest of us to do with less but not perhaps not themselves. The attitude of “it’s good for thee but not for me” needs to change.