By Justin Leitgeb

Recently the board of trustees has been working to prepare the budget for the coming year. We have published some of these meetings that we have attended on Village Videos. I believe that it is particularly important to improve transparency of the budget process to avoid what happened last year.

Last year Trustee Keating, after having participated in the budget sessions, voted against the budget that was proposed. He thought that the amount allocated for legal fees was too low and it should be increased by $100,000 to $140,000. The budget that he was proposing would have required a major increase in taxes or a reduction of half of our DPW staff. While he voted against the budget last year, he did not propose an alternative balanced budget including the tax increases or staffing changes that would have been needed to reflect his estimate of expenditures.

This year, the budget has been similarly difficult and the board is faced with spending cuts or increasing revenue. I hope that Trustee Keating will not again vote down the budget without proposing an alternative balanced budget. Preparing the budget is hard work and we should be grateful for the time that our trustees put into our budgeting process. We should ensure that they don’t just vote against the budget, but that they collaborate, and provide alternatives if they are not satisfied with the options that have been proposed.

If you are interested in this process I would encourage you to attend the relevant village meetings or watch the videos that we are able to post if you cannot attend in person. Our trustees are all dedicated to ensuring that we manage our village finances responsibly - be sure to thank them for their efforts the next time you see them!