THE BERLIN DAILY SUN, Wednesday, January 25, 2012— Page 7
MEA CULPA from page one
matter up at Monday night’s work session. “I applaud Jeff for doing his actual work. It was in our book the whole time. Any budget member could have looked,” Lary said. Town Finance Administrator Denise Vallee explained that capital outlay funded by capital reserve is money appropriated in prior years and then spent in a single year, much like saving for a vacation for four years and then taking that vacation in the fifth year using the money you saved. Those expenses do not affect the amount of money to be raised by taxes or offset by revenue in the budgetary year and are therefore not considered part of the increase or decrease in a total budget. With the capital reserve spending included the budget had appeared to drop $497,589. In fact it had gone down $286,889, according to Vallee, a difference of $210,000. That puts the 2012 budget down 6.3 percent from 2011, not close to 11 percent as Frost had stated earlier. The budget committee has closed that gap through recent changes. In work sessions last week and this week, the budget committee recommended cutting an additional $33,560 from the budget. The bulk of that figure reflects that committee’s recommendation to cut $20,000 in personnel benefits and the entire appropriation of $13,260 from the building inspection line. The budget SHELBURNE from page one
Hadley’s Purchase, Thornton, and Woodstock. Those would be added to Bethlehem, Franconia, Lincoln, Lisbon, Littleton, Livermore, Lyman, and Sugar Hill, which are already part of District I. Waterville Valley, currently part of District I, would become part of District 3. On the easterly side of the state, District I would no longer include the Carroll County communities of Albany, Bartlett, Bean’s Purchase, Hale’s Location, Hart’s Location, and Jackson. Those towns would become part of District 3. Gallus said it is always hard to lose communities you have represented in exchange for new ones. Under the proposed plan, he would lose eight communities he has represented since his initial election in 2002 and pick up
committee also voted against recommending $152,000 in capital reserve spending, meaning they recommend the town does not appropriate placing those monies in capital reserve (saving) accounts for future capital outlay use. This further reduced the 2012 budget proposal by $142,000 beyond what the selectmen had recommended. With the capital reserve recommendations and the additional budget cuts from the budget committee so far, the proposed 2012 Gorham budget is down $462,449, or 10.1 percent. “What we’re doing right now is what is supposed to be done,” Lary said. He explained that historically the selectmen’s proposed budget has been presented at the annual hearing prior to town meeting, and then budget committee recommendations followed. “It’s never been done the way its being done this year, where the budget committee votes to recommend before the budget hearing,” said Lary, who has been involved in overseeing or forming local budgets for nearly 30 years. He said prior practice didn’t violate any laws, but now the committee more closely follows the recommendations of the Department of Revenue Administration. Gorham’s budget committee will meet again on Thursday evening, Jan. 26, at 6:30 p.m., at the Gorham Town Hall. The Gorham public budget hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8, at 6:30 p.m., also at the Gorham Town Hall. eight new communities. The senator said he knew District I would expand south because Coos County has lost population. While the district retains the same number of communities, they would all be in Coos and Grafton Counties. Gallus noted that currently District I is spread over three counties. Gallus said his main concern with the plan is the proposal to put Shelburne in District 3. “That makes no sense,” he said, arguing that Shelburne is part of the Androscoggin Valley. The proposal, developed by Senator Russell Prescott, (R- Kingston) was released Jan. 5 and is scheduled to come up for a vote in the Senate this week. Gallus said he believes the Senate will pass the measure.
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