Cuts possible as Hudson must redo 2017 budget

Citing a clerical error, Hudson must redo its operating budget for 2017, Mayor Ed Prévost announced at the start of the town council meeting Monday.

Town council initially tabled a $13.2 million budget for 2017 on Dec. 21. After the holiday break, however, it was realized in January that there was an erroneous figure from 2016 included when making comparable calculations to determine what the general tax rate increase would be for this year.

Instead of a presumed general and debt service taxation rate hike of under 2 per cent, there was an actual increase of almost 5 per cent, which was deemed unacceptable by council, according to councillor Ron Goldenberg, who heads the town’s financial committee.

“It was a clerical error that we did not catch (before Dec. 21). It’s not one person’s fault,” he said, prior to a notice of motion calling for a new budget to be tabled.

Council will now meet and prepare a revamped budget with the hopes of tabling it in early February, though it’s not yet clear where new cuts can be made to reduce some of the 5 per cent increase, he said.

“We will work to bring that number down, but there is no guarantee (of the final results),” he told residents, adding council will further review spending.

After the meeting, Goldenberg said council may opt to delay some projects to compensate for the budget adjustment, but that they don’t want to hurt residents by cutting services.

“We have to find as much as we can. I don’t guarantee how much we will find to cut,” he said, adding the aim is to reach the percentage increase that was initially believed to have been reached. “We’ve cut so many times. Honestly, we’ve cut and cut and we’ll try to do it again and see what we will come up with.”

As a result of redoing the budget, Goldenberg said the issuing of tax bills will be delayed by about a month, adding this will also push back the three payment instalments deadlines that property owners will face.

“It’s delaying the tax bills. It’s not financially a good thing to do, but we prefer to get the budget correct, to get a number that we are all comfortable with,” he said.

Hudson prepared its 2017 budget last month without a treasurer, as its previous treasurer/director of finance was dismissed in midOctober. On Monday, it was noted the town is in the process of hiring a new treasurer, with a decision possibly coming as soon as next month.