Gainesboro Aldermen have approved a first reading of a new budget that decreases overall spending while providing significant pay raises for the police department.
Alderman Tom Goetz said the town achieved savings by managing overtime and curtailing other municipal expenses. Goetz said the police department raises were made possible by a shift in personnel that balanced the payroll.
“We’ve developed some cost-saving measures, managing overtime and other expenses,” Goetz said. “It still takes a lot of money to run a town, but we’ve been able to curtail some expenses.”
Goetz said the town’s largest recurring expense remains a water intake project that is now entering its fifth or sixth year. Goetz said the project involves progressive billing and the management of various grants.
“Well, some of our biggest expenses are things with our water intake project that’s been going on and that’s year five or six on that one and that’s just a reoccurring expense and progressive billing and grants and a lot of things like that,” Goetz said. “That’s probably the largest one we have.”
Goetz said the town lost some employees during the year and replaced them with new staff members who entered at a lower pay scale than those who departed.
“Well, unfortunately we kind of lost some employees during the year and brought some other ones on and the ones that left were making a little bit more than the ones that came in, so it’s just kind of a balancing act,” Goetz said.
Goetz said the town also generated $72,000 in interest over the last year by moving funds into CDs. Goetz said this financial strategy followed a recommendation from an independent auditor who suggested the town invest its bank balance differently.
“Want to know that we take spending taxpayer’s dollars very seriously,” Goetz said. “We believe that people pay their taxes and in return they expect the city to continue forward and do positive things for the citizens of the town of Gainesboro.”
Goetz said the board reached a consensus on the budget through a series of workshops and planning meetings held prior to the official vote. Goetz said the town must submit a balanced budget to the state legislature for final approval.
“We continue to work and do these projects and with the resources we have and try not to raise any city taxes or anything like that and continue to manage a balanced budget,” Goetz said.
The budget will now move to a second reading for formal approval.
