|
|
FY 2008 budget gap closed
Banner Daily Update Tues. Nov. 27
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN – A little arm-twisting by the board of selectmen Monday night allowed the town to close a $70,000 budget gap in the current fiscal year with no layoffs or reductions in service.
Selectmen met with the visitor services board Monday to discuss the VSB’s proposed five-year budget plan. When the dust had settled after a contentious discussion, the VSB reluctantly agreed to transfer $27,870 out of its budget into the town’s general fund to help make up the $69,690 shortfall in the current fiscal year budget caused by the rejection of two budget overrides at the ballot box Nov. 13.
The VSB also agreed to pay another $10,057 to the department of public works to cover about a month of extended public restroom hours that had been unfunded in the FY 2008 town budget.
In return for using tourism fund dollars to pay mostly non-tourism expenses, the VSB was given approval by selectmen to proceed with a plan to renovate the waterfront memorial park next to MacMillan Pier. Selectmen had threatened to veto the project if the VSB didn’t agree to help with the current budget “crisis,” as board of selectmen chair Mary-Jo Avellar called the financial scramble that has consumed Town Hall since the special election earlier this month.
“You’ve made a good move forward by helping us out tonight,” selectman Austin Knight told the VSB Monday.
The VSB contribution to the general fund was part of a financial package of budget cuts proposed by town manager Sharon Lynn to solve the immediate financial shortfall. Other contributions to the $69,690 gap came from various municipal departments, including the assessor’s office, which transferred money between line items to produce a surplus of just over $9,000. A reserve fund transfer from the town manager’s budget of almost $20,000 and a voluntary reduction in hours by a parking lot attendant closed the rest of the budget gap.
“We’re just about there,” Lynn said about making up the FY 2008 shortfall. “We’re coming up with the amount needed just by department heads reviewing their proposed expenses. But some of what was cut in the 2008 budget will have to come back in [FY] 2009 to fund specific line items. It’s not good to work with limited funds like that,”
|
Beach Point fire doesn’t appear suspicious
Business summit resumes
Chowder Bowl ends Nauset season
Monument lighting video
Selectmen take on override failure
Residents awoken by intruder
Provincetown author reinvents civilization
Lighting of the Monument
Another head-on collision in Truro
|
|
|
|
|
Nov 22nd, 2007