Christine McGrath
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Question 4: Verona has just passed its budget for 2019. If you could shift spending around in
this budget, which aspects would you give more funding to and which lines would you reduce to do so? Please don’t increase the town’s spending–or our taxes.
As the only non-incumbent candidate who attended all five hours of the 2019 budget workshop firsthand, I watched the council poring over every line of the budget. Each department head presented on efficiencies achieved in their departments and an explanation of the plans for spending in the next year. Overall, I was very impressed with the department heads and how much in financial efficiencies they have realized in the last few years.
One small change to the budget that happened real-time, though, is an illustration of where we could potentially improve. The initial proposed shade tree budget was set to be reduced by $15,000 – from $125,000 to $110,000. However, in the end the $15,000 was restored based on feedback from the council, as it was felt that additional tree trimming would prevent issues with downed limbs before they become emergencies.
I wonder if that $15,000 could have been invested in solutions to other previously identified problems. For example, over several town council meetings, and in the course of these budget meetings, issues with the crossing guards have been raised. The township is having a hard time recruiting and retaining crossing guards, and if the situation does not get resolved, posts may have to be eliminated.
When I attended a Neighborhood Traffic and Safety meeting recently, there was a long discussion on the equipment that Verona provides to their crossing guards. We are one of the few municipalities that does not provide a three-season reflective coat to crossing guards as part of the equipment they need to keep themselves and the children safe. Providing this coat may help to retain crossing guards, as it will keep them safer and warmer when we have extremely cold weather in the winter.
The committee estimated the cost of providing this appropriate safety equipment to the crossing guards at approximately $10,000. At that cost, the committee assumed that funding the coats in the budget was not possible, and the conversation shifted to a brainstorming session on grants and fundraising.
Connecting these two conversations, could we have used the $15,000 that was put back into tree trimming to give our crossing guards much needed safety equipment, and take a big step forward on a solution to an issue that has been unresolved for months?
This example illustrates a bigger problem that I am looking to address – a lack of overall strategic objectives. As a community, we much articulate what our objectives are as a township, and where we need to invest to achieve our goals. Continuing with this example, if one of our goals is to maintain the high level of safety in our township, then we need to ensure that the budgets that impact safety, including budgets for pedestrian safety, are appropriate, and we may need to resist the urge to add money back into the budget for items that would be “nice to haves” but may not be as immediately critical.
I just noticed after re-reading my answer that I made an incorrect statement. I stated “we were able to generate a budget surplus of about $700,000” when I should have stated “we were able to generate about $700,000 from operations”; obviously different. My follow on concept after that remains my intended response, but I don’t like that I misstated surplus for operations. I apologize.