FARMINGTON — Selectmen voted 3-2 Tuesday to permanently table the notion of changing the town budget cycle from a calendar year to a July 1-to-June 30 fiscal year.

Selectmen Stephan Bunker and Drew Hufnagel voted no to Jon Bubier’s motion to table the discussion, which was supported by Ryan Morgan and Nancy Porter. Bunker said after the vote that he would like to see it taken to town meeting for a larger group to have input.

The discussion, one that has resurfaced each of his last four years in board meetings, didn’t sway Bubier as he couldn’t see the benefit of switching and questioned the burden to farmers and small business owners. 

Budget Committee members Ray Stillman and Dennis O’Neil presented some of their research discussed by the committee last week which then endorsed the move and voted to bring it to selectmen. The board has the authority to change the budget cycle.

Stillman explained how the research was done including looking at 209 towns, 78 of which remain on a calendar year while the rest have switched to a fiscal year.

Going to a fiscal year and breaking tax bills into two payments, would provide money for the town to invest rather than borrowing funds for tax anticipation, O’Neil said. It would also align the town with the school and county budget cycles. It’s a majority trend, he added.

Taxes would also be due in two major installments although Stillman said some people tended to forget the second payment.

For farmer Bussie York, the switch would mean that taxes are due at a time when cash is really tight with the added expenses of planting season, he told the board. The amount of tax is the same either way but when taxes are due is an issue, he said.

“The bottom line doesn’t matter, but it makes one hell of a difference when I pay it,” York said.

He would rather see the town borrow money at 1 or 2 percent than for taxpayers to have to borrow at 8 percent to pay their taxes, he explained.

York was not alone with that view as Paul Mills voiced his concerns over a proposed switch.

It’s always been more expensive for a taxpayer to borrow than a municipality, he said. He also said many towns that switch to a fiscal year also change to a referendum vote rather than town meeting. June weddings, graduations and other activities could compete for taxpayer attendance, he said, while encouraging the board to create less hardship on the taxpayer. Now is not the time to do it, he added.

Town Manager Richard Davis explained how the calendar year creates a hardship for the town in terms of getting the books ready for audit and the town report to the publisher in time to print before the March town meeting.

While he said it didn’t matter which way they went, he asked if the town’s not  going to do it, why keep bringing it up and doing research on it?

There doesn’t seem much benefit to changing other than internally. It works the way it is, he said.

“Why pay in advance for the town to make a little money,” he said. “If 50 other towns change that doesn’t mean we have to jump off the same bridge.”

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