Guidelines to help craft a prudent budget set

As state aid dwindles, collecting unpaid taxes, other efforts are crucial

EAST HAMPTON >> As he prepares to begin fashioning the budget for fiscal year 2017-18, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said he has one goal: “To survive.”

Approximately 20 percent of the town’s budget revenues come from the state, Maniscalco said. And with the state facing a burgeoning deficit, Maniscalco said he has reason to be concerned.

Department heads have to present their individual budgets to Director of Finance Jeffrey M. Jylkka by Monday. Jylkka will review the departmental budget and then present them to Maniscalco before month’s end. Together, the two officials will then review and revise the budgets as they prepare the proposal that will be presented to the Board of Finance in mid-March.

But as he begins preparing the budget, Maniscalco faces continuing uncertainty about the impact the state’s problems can — and perhaps will — make on East Hampton. Late last month, the state announced it was reneging on an approximately $160,000 payment to the town.

But that may be only the tip of the iceberg.

“Looking at the challenges of state revenues is like facing the fact that a train is coming down the tracks toward you,” Maniscalco said this week.

“You have two choices: to make yourself so small that the train goes right over you or to get so big that you can step over the train,” Maniscalco said.

Maniscalco said he favors a middling approach, “some combination of that — to both grow and shrink.”

Beginning last year, Maniscalco told the Town Council that he believes the best solution is to wean the town off the mother’s milk of state aid. “Our goal is going to be looking at that,” he said.

One approach Maniscalco intends to use involves collecting back taxes. With the town’s new collector of revenues Kristy L. Merrifield having taken over the office just before Christmas, Maniscalco said he will be looking to her to help grow the town’s revenues.

“We’re going to be very aggressive with back taxes going forward,” he said.

The council adopted a policy statement in November to help guide the budget-making process.

The “goals and future planning” section of the statement contains eight objectives.

They include: not using the fund balance “to lower the annual mill rate or pay for town operating expenses,” make every effort to “minimize new personnel for any department this fiscal year,” “conservatively estimate state revenues to be prepared for shortfalls in state funding,” and make every effort in both town and Board of Education budgets “to only limit the budget increases to meet contractual obligations.”

In addition, the council included six pledges.

They include continuing to support the manager’s “labor negotiation efforts to realize efficiencies and savings for taxpayers,” supporting “those items from the Lake Pocotopaug 9 Point Plan that will preserve and improve the condition of the lake and its watershed,” “ensure social services and programs for seniors are adequately funded,” and providing continued support, training and equipment for public safety services.

“This document represents our collective advice to our town manager as he develops his departments’ requirements,” Town Council Chairwoman Patience R. Anderson said in an email Thursday morning.

“I have full confidence that our suggestions are being thoughtfully considered,” she added.

FILE PHOTO