Reporter Editorial: A tough task well done

Just a few short weeks ago, the Town Board began scrutinizing Supervisor Gary Gerth’s budget with the aim of sharply decreasing it. While that initial budget is referred to as the supervisor’s budget, Mr. Gerth told the Board that he had met with department heads and committee chairs to discuss their requests.

When it came to putting out the first draft, it was essentially the same as what the various individuals had requested except for a general 2% across the board salary hike for employees. Last year when all non-union employees received a 3% pay hike and a few received additional bonuses, Mr. Gerth warned that the 2020 budget would be tight. So the rollback to 2% raises was expected.

But Mr. Gerth wanted the entire Town Board to look at the requests and work with him to make most other cuts.

That budget draft started out at a 15.7% hike in spending if all requests had remained intact. But Town Board members knew that wouldn’t do. The problem was the requests before them weren’t filled with fat, so the cuts would be painful.

On the first pass, they identified some low hanging fruit — again, not fat — but items that could be delayed, paid from other funds that wouldn’t impact taxes, and some items that, despite their merit, just couldn’t be covered if the budget were to come in at a reasonable amount.

They went through the 100-page budget line by line at least twice debating the impact of each cut, called in some department heads more than once to discuss the impact of cuts they were considering, and as of Tuesday, Oct. 8, had succeeded in bringing the budget increase down to 5.3%.

But they’re not finished.

Having started the process early, they have some time to think before they resume talks to give each member time to review the revised budget and, perhaps, find other cuts.

Will it happen? Maybe. But even if it doesn’t come further down, the entire Town Board deserves great credit for the thoughtful hard work they have put into finding ways to fund essentials and delay or eliminate whatever they could.

They also deserve credit for moving up the date of the public hearing from Nov. 6 to Oct. 22 so it will fall two weeks before the local election instead of the day after. That was a gutsy move with three of the five Town Board members seeking re-election this year.

We also think the spending plan as it stands is responsible, continuing to address necessary capital projects as well as creating a good operating budget. If, somehow, Town Board members or residents can find a few more cuts, all the better, but it won’t be easy.