Any Increase Will Hurt

At the July 14 public meeting, the Board of Finance (BOF) dismissed a variety of budget-cutting alternatives and arrived at its latest 2010-2011 budget proposal: an increase of 1.36 percent with a new interim mill rate of 19.3.

To help all our citizens, I strongly support a flat budget (as stated in Lou de Ocejo's July 8 letter "Spare Taxpayers the Handwringing"). The audience proposed changes to decrease town spending: employment contracts; 401K pension plans; removal of new capital projects from the town's Long Term Capital Projects Maintenance Program (Lo-Cap); energy efficient new and old buildings; and the removal of school building maintenance projects from the town's Lo-Cap budget. In the end, the BOF decreased its proposed budget by an additional $100,000.

Some ideas were good, but not necessary for this coming year. The best way to decrease the budget is to postpone all projects not needed in the immediate future. Any increase in the budget will hurt people in Madison in this poor economic time.

Roberta Willenkin
Madison