Town Budget

Let's clear the air with regard to who is writing to you. I registered as a Republican while I was in serving in the U.S. Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1972. I am politically to the right of Rush Limbaugh, admire Sean Hannity and think that the tea party folks are common-sense patriots. With that said, my income has declined by 65 percent since September '06. It is now getting back to where it was in 1994. It may take me a few more years to get back to my 2006 income level. In 1994, I had five children with a stay-at-home wife at home.

The Town Council faced an unenviable choice Monday: dredge more than$14,000 out of the town budget in the middle of a fiscal year or puta state trooper out on the street.The council said it will find the money.Town officials vowed to scour Mount Airy's budget to make up for money the state yanked last week in the latest round of budget cuts aimed at slowing Maryland's burgeoning fiscal disaster."We're going to give it our best stroke," Mayor Gerald R. Johnson Jr. said yesterday.1st Sgt. Steven C. Reynolds of the state police attended Monday's meeting to brief the council and find out how the town wanted to deal with the latest shortfall.

It's no laughing matter, but Town Councilman Jonathan Herman's unorthodox idea to increase town revenue drew chuckles."Why don't we tax any state mandates that come down to us?" he suggested at Monday'sTown Council meeting. "Tell them we'll do it for 250 bucks a mandate."Herman raised the suggestion after Town Manager James L. Schumacher proposed $30,200 in cuts to the current $687,307 fiscal 1992 budget to offset declining revenues, mostly from the state.Schumacher and Clerk-Treasurer Vince Diffenbaugh worked up a revised $657,107 budget, based on the following anticipated revenue shortfalls:* State income tax -- $10,000.

Unless town department heads are willing to slash their wish lists for equipment and programs, residents are likely to pay more taxes next year as the battle of the budget looms.During a workshop session before the regular Town Council meeting Monday night, officials discussed 1991-1992 revenue and a proposed 5-cent property tax increase."We looked over the tax audits for the last three years, took into consideration the economy, and stayed with a conservative budget," said Town Manager James L. Schumacher, who drafted the budget proposal with Clerk-Treasurer Vincent J. Diffenbaugh.

Sykesville residents have accepted a tax increase, but they may not tolerate a corresponding decrease in trash pickup.Several attended the Town Council meeting last week to voice opposition to a proposed reduction from twice-weekly pickup to once-a-week collection.Betty Jean Maus has lived in the town for 42 years and has seen her tax bill quadruple."I might agree with less pickups in the winter months, but not in hot weather," she said. "You are talking about odors and bad conditions for the crews."

Preliminary work on the town's fiscal 1992 budget has begun, as the project administrator and town staff try to assess the impact of state, federal and county budget cuts.While no numbers have been released, the town's budget is expected to total close to $900,000 for the year beginning July 1.It is not known if the town will change its tax rate of 42 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, one of the lowest in the Baltimore metropolitan region. For the current budget year, the tax rate was lowered from 46 cents per $100.

The Town Council unanimously passed a budget Wednesday that includesno tax increase.The county's decision to maintain the trash tipping fee at $15 per ton enabled the council to hold property taxes to the present 45 cents per $100 of assessed value.In other business, Steven C. Horn, county planner, said the blockgrant request to address the town's storm water drainage problems had been forwarded to Annapolis by the April 30 deadline.Mayor James C. Carlisle said he had received a letter of support for the application from Delegate Donald B. Elliott, R-Carroll, Howard.

The Mount Airy Town Council has passed a $2 million budget for fiscal 2001, which maintains the current tax rate. The property tax rate is 56 cents per $100 of assessed value and will yield an additional $37,452, said Robert Wilson of Wilson & Linder in Towson, the town accountant. Projected income balances proposed expenditures at $2,099,900 for the fiscal year 2000-2001, which begins July 1, he said. No one spoke at a public hearing that preceded passage of the spending plan Monday night.

An increase in revenue from county and state sources and from town impact fees has generated a budget surplus of nearly $300,000 for the town of Sykesville.An independent audit of town finances identified the surplus, which is about 25 percent of the town's $1.2 million budget and comes in the same year that Sykesville has reduced its property tax rate by 4 cents per $100 of assessed value.The surplus could mean another tax reduction next year."I know there will be a lot of sentiment to lower taxes again, but we have to see about putting this money to the best possible use," Mayor Jonathan S. Herman said.