Tax increase sought for town

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

In the past 10 years the town's annual tax rate has remained flat or gone down slightly.

Early indications are that it won't be the case for FY09.

The town manager's budget proposal, which was posted on the town website in late December, calls for a spending increase of $535,763 over the town's current budget of $5,453,022 in the coming year.

If the Selectboard agrees with this proposal, that would bring the tax rate to .4098, up 4.549 cents from the current rate of .3643. That would translate into a tax bill increase of $113.75 for the typical homeowner with a house valued at $250,000.

In an e-mail comment, town manager Sandy Miller said the increases are needed to keep up with demand for town services.

“Its been my opinion—and continues to be—that the level of services being requested by the community warrant such spending increases,” he wrote. “Overall, budget and spending increases over the past several years have not kept up with the demand.”

Miller wrote that nearly 80 percent of the increase was for salaries, benefits, insurance, highway, and capital spending—however, the budget does include several new positions, including a full time Fire Chief/Rescue Administrator.

Those two roles are currently separate, stipend positions, but Miller cited difficulty filling the Rescue position in recent years—and the “excellent” job being done by Fire Chief Don Turner in that role-- as reasons for proposing the change. He added that Turner devotes 40 hours per week to work already.

“Since the time involved for supervising Rescue and Fire operations is more than full time, it is only fair and reasonable to treat someone who is working full-time as a full-time employee with an appropriate salary and benefits,” he wrote.

Turner expressed similar sentiment, saying the consolidated fire/rescue role isn't something new, but instead a full-time duty he's been doing for some time now.

“Basically, I feel the town manager is recognizing that it's a lot more than a part-time or stipend position to keep the departments going like they are,” he said.

Elsewhere, other new positions include a part-time town planner, addition of a part-time and seasonal laborer for the Public Works Department, and converting a full-time position in the Town Clerk's office to two part-time positions.

Other changes include increasing the rescue budget to cover a new policy that pays its members for training time and additional funds for the highways department to maintain roads.

The budget as a whole is being reviewed through the end of January by the Selectboard, which has the prerogative to make modifications. Board Chairman James Manley estimated that the review is just under half complete, and said it's too early to predict what changes the Selectboard may impose.

When asked, Manley said the board appears to be onboard with adding the full time chief position, though.

“I think there's a sense from the board that we do need a position like this,” he said.