FARMINGTON – Hikes in fuel prices, heating costs, employee health insurance and an anticipated 30 percent rise in this year’s electricity bills were justifications given for most town departments’ budget increases Thursday. But, despite those increases, Town Manager Richard Davis told selectmen he was pleased with the proposal that showed an overall increase of just under 6.99 percent. The total proposed budget is $4,016,655.
That 6.99 percent mark is the town’s spending limitation based on the newly enacted state tax legislation, LD 1, according to Davis. The legislation, which took effect in January of 2005, limits municipal spending based on a town’s property valuation growth and a state-supplied average taxpayer income growth factor over the previous year.
Davis commended town department heads for keeping their budgets within those limits at a special selectmen’s meeting Thursday to review them.
Though most budgets met with selectmen’s approval without much debate, several department heads spoke of squeezing all they could from shrinking resources and increasing costs.
“I don’t have much, if any, wiggle room,” Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser said.
Increases in the police department budget included $18,000 more for overtime pay to better accommodate officers out on workers’ compensation or training. The increased line item will allow for up to six overtime shifts monthly.
“It was quite a struggle” covering shifts this past year for officers out on workers’ compensation or attending the criminal justice academy, Chief Richard Caton III told selectmen.
Fire Chief Terry Bell received accolades for a recommendation Selectman Mark Cayer described as “thinking out of the box.”
Bell, in analyzing his capital improvement plan, discovered that replacing Engine 3 in 2007 will cost about $400,000. The department’s ladder truck is slated for replacement in 2012 and is estimated to cost at least $900,000 at today’s prices. With the total cost for the two trucks at $1.3 million, Bell suggested selectmen consider replacing both Engine 3 – a pumper truck – and the ladder truck in 2007 with a combination pumper and ladder truck at the estimated cost of $800,000 potentially saving taxpayers $500,000. The next time a truck replacement is scheduled is 2020.
“We owe it to the taxpayers of 2020,” Davis said. “Anytime we can buy one truck instead of two and save a half million dollars,” it’s a good thing, he added.
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