Council retools budget categories and agrees to explore modest property-tax hike

The town council spent most of a work session reorganizing the town's budget presentation and preparing a tentative budget for the May meeting, and signaled they want staff to examine a modest property-tax increase.

Chair Cheryl Cox opened the discussion by saying the council should show more clearly how the budget supports the community and proposed four top-level categories: general governance, public safety, public works and community. "We are tasked with me and Elizabeth and Lacey to begin looking at those categories," Cheryl Cox said, asking staff to re-map current accounts into the new structure.

Council members flagged accounting and reporting issues that must be fixed before the tentative budget is posted. The council identified a missing $40,000 transfer that had been applied to balance the current year and instructed staff to surface that correction in line items so the budget shows a correct balance. Members also asked staff to verify PTIF balances and interest estimates after consolidating cash into the state pooled treasury.

On revenues, members discussed options for closing the shortfall. Several council members supported investigating a small property-tax increase and running a transparent public process similar to a truth-in-taxation presentation. Chair Cox said staff provided an estimate that an increase under consideration would amount to about $4.40 per household per month; the council asked staff to confirm the estimate and to check county filing deadlines. "If we're going to do it, we'll do it in public and transparent fashion," a council member said.

Councilors and staff broke out other follow-ups: staff will pull current-year actuals for each line, check PTIF interest rates, estimate website migration and software costs, verify county election charges with county staff, and identify likely penalties and back-tax entries to put under a payroll-tax penalties subline so one-off items do not distort operating results.

The council directed staff to have a tentative budget ready for review a week before the May meeting so members can finalize a budget hearing timeline. The agenda-adoption motion was the only formal vote in the session; the council otherwise worked through classification choices and assignments and adjourned after summarizing next steps.