Oh that budget and the pesky details. . . .

Retirement costs and conflicting numbers aside, there appears to be some more figures presented in the next budget draft for fiscal year 2017, July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. These numbers come from information provided by the Town Administrator. There is still a wait for debt schedule of the Town to be provided as well as explanations of numbers not coinciding with previous year budget. The budget versus actual which is suppose to be an up to date accounting of town spending does not even equal what it should be. Quite a few dollar figures do not agree. Something is clearly amiss here which is probably why the Town's schedule A has not been completed on time. There are also new contracts for some departments such as fire and highway, which I hope the selectmen do not give away the house this time. It is time to stop giving away free stuff, offer a wage and benefit package that helps employees but also benefits the town as a whole. One thing would be to strongly push for new health insurance entity to lower the cost of the taxpayers, quite simply, the pie is only so big and if you spend it all on employees, what is left for services such as road repair and maintenance of town buildings. The money has to come from somewhere and that is your wallet, whether it is local taxes, state taxes or federal taxes, it all begins at your wallet. There is no such thing as free money and if the state did not take it from you in the first place, there would be no need for state aid. But back to the local issue at hand. The Advisory Board received an email from the Town Administrator that the Town Accountant was working on the debt schedule, which is really the job of the Town Treasurer. With all the work that needs to be done for audits to happen, as we have been told, it would seem prudent and important for the Town Accountant to be fully focused on things under that office and the treasurer to work on things under that office. Seems like one person doing all the work, which makes one wonder, what the hell is the rest of the "team" doing?

Jeff Bennett