Councilman: Curb spending right now and start 2026 budget plans earlier than in the past

So many people are upset by word that their tax bills are increasing that the Town has to do something now about current spending, Councilman Gordon Gooding told his Town Board colleagues at Tuesday’s work session.

Budgeting for 2026 should start now with a “zero-based” approach to next year’s spending plan, he said. A zero-based budget would not base next year’s spending on this year’s budget, but look at every department as though there is no existing budget and build its spending on specific needs for the next year.

“Everything is going up,” Mr. Gooding said, noting homeowners are seeing significant increases in insurance rates, sales taxes are increasing, and everyday purchases cost more.

In the third month of this year, he asked his colleagues to look at all planned expenditures for this year to see if there is spending that can be cut back or delayed to try to bring down taxes. Mr. Gooding said he wasn’t taking issue with the move to 100% assessments from the 68% that has been in effect the past few years because of staffing changes that made it difficult to do the annual reassessments.

With a stable work force in place, the return to the long practice of annual reassessments is a sign of “good governance,” Mr. Gooding said.

Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams told him there are significant parts of the budget over which the Town Board has no control. Some increases are the result of negotiations with unions regarding salaries. Others are costs of health insurance premiums. Even though the Town shops for lower rates, lesser costs are seldom possible.

Mr. Gooding had raised the issue of revisiting this year’s budget a short time ago but there was little response. This time, Councilman Albert Dickson jumped in saying he thinks it would be a good idea to try to make adjustments to spending now.

Councilman Benjamin Dyett noted that the auditor’s report last year was late and made it difficult to track spending. But Shelby Mundy, who has been training with Ms. Brach-Williams to handle a lot of earlier financial reporting, is turning out reports monthly that should make it accessible to members.

Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen said the monthly reports have been available for quite some time and do contain a lot of information members would need to track spending.

Ms. Brach-Williams said the approach to department heads as she contemplates a difficult budget for 2026 is to ask them what cuts they can make in spending and what services they can cut.

At the same time, she said, “There is really not a lot of fat” in the spending plan for the current year.