No Increase In Taxes say Lisbon's Officials of budgets presented Oh Really?

All Lisbon Residents:

I had the pleasure and honor to witness a real live miracle last night at the Public Hearing on the 2011-2012 Budget. I could not believe it was possible but both the School and Town budgets are NOT going to raise our taxes this year according to the Town Manager.

First, I want to compliment Mr. Green for an excellent presentation outlining the School budget process and detailing what they had done to reach their goal of keeping the budget so there would be no increase in our taxes.

However, on the town side I can not say the same. The handout provided at the Public Hearing outlined the budget much better but still needs a lot of work like explaining when you transfer accounts from one line item to the other. It appears the town did some very “creative accounting”.

The Town Manager gave a presentation of the town budget but never mentioned whether or not the resident of Lisbon’s taxes would be increasing this year. I would think this might be a critical point in his presentation, however, he never mention the impact the budget would have on taxes. Included in the proposed budget is still a wage increase of 1.75% to ALL town employees; losses of jobs for four or five individuals, and an 8% increase to two individuals for taking on additional duties. Also, the Town Manager and his secretary’s professional development are still in the budget proposal.

After the Town Manager’s presentation I asked the Town Manager: “What was the bottom line on whether or not the residents of Lisbon will experience a tax increase this year.” The Town Manager’s response was “There will be NO tax increase this year.”

I want you to know the town must have done a lot of “creative accounting” to have so much increase in spending and not raise our taxes. Makes you wonder why it was not done before.

In all honesty, I have to tell you, all my dealing with the Town Manager he has never told me the truth. Remember last year, when the Town Manager stated there was nothing the town could do because we had a “valid commitment” and come to find out there was no “valid commitment”. This cost the town an additional $10,000 dollars to correct. The Town Manager stated the investigation into the $32,500 in the Economic Development Department was over and come to find out the State Attorney’s General office had to send a special letter to clarify the situation. There have been many more situations where the input received from the Town Manager was incorrect. If you attend the Town Council meetings, you will witness items come before the Town Council for a vote and some of the Councilors were never notified or provided any information prior to the meeting.

I can almost guarantee you your taxes will go up at least $.35 per thousand this year, if not more. The residents of Lisbon need to start paying more attention to what is going on in this town. I advise all residents to review the public hearing on Thursday, May 5, 2011 on Channel 7 at 7:00PM. I am sure you will find it as entertaining as I did.

Larry A. Fillmore

Concerned Citizen