After months of rumor and speculation as last year’s financial records were untangled and reconstructed, the residents and employees of Point Pleasant Borough finally have answers as to the depth of our current crises. The situation we find ourselves in today is not the result of any particular individuals or any one council. This is the cumulative effect of years if not decades of insufficient planning and short term “fixes”. Some actions of past councils have brought relief and some have made matters worse, but no laying of blame, whether deserved or for political gain, will change the deficit laid before us. As it stands if the Borough were to meet its current obligations using only available funds we would be short $1,125,000 above cap. If we were to close this gap only by raising taxes the increase would be 22.5%. This would be illegal at best and unconscionable at worst.
What we are really presented with is a two fold problem; creating a formula of available tools to balance this year’s budget and stop the bleeding, and putting into place a 3 year plan consisting of new revenue, cuts, and new efficiencies that will bring back to balance what we have all realized by now is a repetitious and worsening condition. Balancing this year’s budget and cauterizing the wound will have to be achieved through a combination of furloughs and layoffs, reduced services, bringing taxes to the 2% cap, and in the worst of scenarios deferring more school taxes. This is an equation. We know what is on the total side and we know what factors are on the other, but the equation is not solved by determining the value of x or y, but by placing value on what x and y represent. If you lower the number of furlough days(x), then taxes(y) or deferred school taxes(z) go up. If keeping property taxes(y) down is felt to be the most important factor, we have to increase furloughs, layoffs, and lost services(x) and/or the amount of deferred school taxes(z).
I would ask the residents of Point Pleasant to contact their elected officials and tell us how you feel about our town and what about it is most important to you, so that when we are deciding how to balance this equation we understand what you value most. This isn’t as simple as saying “keep my taxes down” because every factor we lower causes others to go up. If not an equation, imagine a set of scales. On one side are the revenues and on the other are the expenses. If furloughs that impact the Rec. Dept, Public Works services, or Administrative offices are unacceptable or too severe, an equal increase has to be made elsewhere to keep the scales balanced. If increased taxes or school tax deferrals are unacceptable, then an equal reduction must be made to services. The only way off this merry-go-round is to make long term recurring changes to our revenue and our expenses. These changes can and will be made to bring the Boro back in line, but as meaningful as they will be in the long run, none of them can impact the immediate problem, this year’s problem that must be settled in the next week. What you are witnessing, balancing a budget for introduction, is THE END of the process. This budget began immediately after passage of the last, and little to nothing was done in anticipation of problems compounded by depleting surpluses, over estimating revenue, under estimating costs, and failing to anticipate the impact of furloughs on operations.
This is the worst of all possible scenarios. To introduce a balanced budget we will have to create a cocktail of every inadvisable accounting maneuver. The only way I can even begin to reconcile this with myself is because on the one hand we have no other option, and on the other there is a commitment by this council to make the big changes and the difficult choices that can no longer be avoided. We begin here, at the bottom, and as I said implement a plan that will reduce the need for emergency and unsustainable savings like furloughs, service cuts, and deferred school taxes incrementally over the course of 3 years while new means of revenue and cost saving plans reduce our dependency on these measures and close the gap between the cost of operating the town and our means to do so.
Our community will not be damned by the mistakes of the past, but by our failure to learn from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment