Budget

Income growth in the Mount Pleasant budget has exceeded inflation by a good deal in the last five years, but outlays have at least kept pace. How would you propose to shrink expenses to provide surpluses in the future?

What do you see as the most important priorities and which can be harvested?  (e.g. second senior center, etc.)

If by income growth you mean revenues to the town of course they have exceeded inflation, but so has the expenses based on the growth of the town. I don’t think inflation has anything to do with the revenue. About “surpluses,” If you mean increasing our Unrestricted Fund Balance, I think it is at about $16 million. ( I am not sure of this,) People call that the “Rainy Day Fund,” I hate that term. And I think it is raining.

How would I propose to shrink expenses? Who said we need to shrink expenses? The Town Council in the last five years has discussed a tax increase to get more money for expenses. I am not sure where we would cut. I may think just the opposite. Here are some things I think we are going to need to have money for;

• If you don’t want development you have to buy the land. We need money to buy land and create a program using our Capital Bonding authority to fund this.
• We have to look at the current strategy for the Obligations of Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB). I have not met with the town staff on this, and I am sure they are doing all they can, but this is LAW. We have to make sure that we are using every tool in the toolbox for these monies.
• I would like to look at our fee structures and sponsorship opportunities. Not only in the recreation department but in other areas as well. The recreation department that I worked for brought in about $34 million dollars last year in fees, not taxes. We utilize market price, but have alternatives for those that do not have the ability to pay. I want us to look at the multitude of places where fees can be cultivated.

There are two ways to make a budget work, you can cut expenses or you can raise more revenue. It is not always about cutting expenses.