Economic dark clouds

In this week’s stories we have coverage of the Village of Garden City’s budgeting process, in the police, fire and recreation departments.

The common theme among all of the departments is that costs are rising rather rapidly, in particular due to the cost of salaries.

This should really be no surpriseinflation has been rapid and the village is mainly a service business, meaning that its costs are largely driven by the salaries of personnel.

The same dynamic is true in the school district, which will also no doubt have pretty substantial cost increases in its budget.

In addition, with rising interest rates, it is no longer a “no brainer” to borrow money cheaply for capital projects.

The bottom line is that there is likely to be an increase in tax bills from both the village and schools.

It can be a thankless job volunteering to serve on the school and village boards, and we hope that readers understand that rising costs are largely not within the control of the individual trustees.

That said, this seems like a good year to really go over any discretionary spending and consider whether it is truly needed, or whether some items can be safely delayed for a year or two. With the prospect of a possible recession looming, there may end up being a lot of economic pain among residents, especially if unemployment starts to rise.