The Ineptness Of Lisbon's Town Leadership Is Staggering: RECAP TOWN COUNCIL WORKSHOP APRIL 10TH – PART 2

RECAP TOWN COUNCIL WORKSHOP APRIL 10^TH – PART 2

Now, we have the layout of the budget identified. Let’s get into the meat of the workshop. The town council had requested the town manager reconsider the municipal budget. At Tuesday’s workshop, Eldridge presented several empty gestures such as cutting children’s story time and summer reading programs at the library. 

The other one I loved was cutting the Police Patrol hours or cut a Public Safety Officer and an Officer Safety. I have no idea what the difference is with these two positions because they are not listed on the police web site. Both of these gestures are empty.

In the proposed budget, Eldridge wants to award a 2% bonus to every employee of the town at a cost of $49,280 dollars. If you eliminate the department heads from this bonus, there would be sufficient funds to keep the children’s story time and summer reading programs in the budget. 

So the big question is do we fund children’s story time and the summer reading program plus keep the same hours at the Library or provide a 2% bonus to all the department heads? Keep in mind, the department heads in Lisbon’s salaries are $166,000 dollars more than their counterparts in Skowhegan.

Also, Eldridge has $55, 925 dollars for Professional Development in this municipal budget. This means the taxpayers of Lisbon are going to provide funds for employees to obtain degrees such as paralegal. Of course, there is no position for a paralegal in the town of Lisbon. Why are we wasting so much money on education and receiving no return on investment? 

Ryan Leighton is not a Licensed Professional Engineer and Sean Galipeau does not have his Bachelor’s degree in Public Safety. Neither of these two are fully qualified for their positions as department heads but the taxpayer’s are paying those individuals top dollars. If our pay scale was more in line with Skowhegan, we would have sufficient funds to reduce our capital improvements by paving roads and repairing town buildings without raising taxes.

Anyone who wants to review the proposed municipal budget can do so by going to the town web site and on the home page go down and click on the budget http://www.lisbonme.org/vertical/sites/%7B23BCC392-4131-4737-99E0-6C6FCE7FB2A2%7D/uploads/2013_TM_Budget_Request_Fund_1_031612.pdf.

 I really encourage each of you to do so and you will be shocked by the gross negligence of the town manager in proposing such a budget. Almost every page of the budget contains increases in the 2012-2013 budgets and yet the town has not utilized all the funds appropriated for last year. 

Here is the test, pick any page and look at only 2012 Budget; 2012 YTD and 2013 Manager. The first item is what the town budgeted for this year; the second one is how much of the budgeted amount have we spent and finally what Eldridge has proposed for next year. The explanation is you must always have a fudge factor as a safety measure. I agree with this concept except if you do not spend all of the money you budgeted you do not need this fudge factor; you simply budget the same amount you budgeted the year before. 

 However, since 2008 (when Eldridge came to Lisbon) this fudge factor has been increased every year whether you spend the funds or not so now we are really out of whack.

Taxpayers have to choose if they want to continue overpaying our department heads or adjust their salaries to a reasonable figure more in line with our town economy or to raise taxes every year. In the past, Eldridge stated the increases were due to loss of state revenue but this year we have an increase from $830,000 to $895,000 dollars. So why are they increasing taxes this year?

Now I am going to provide you with the town’s vision of the tax increase for this year.

Valuation      1 mil increase  Cost per month     2 mil increase    Cost per month

$100,000   $100.00    $8.00              $200.00          $17.00

$150,000   $150.00    $13.00            $300.00          $25.00

$200,000   $200.00    $17.00            $400.00          $33.00

$250,000   $250.00    $21.00            $500.00          $42.00

$300,000   $300.00    $25.00            $600.00          $50.00

*These figures were provided by Eldridge.

The town council is trying to keep the increase between 1 & 2 mil. Management of the Town of Lisbon does not understand how to hold taxes. There is no magic formula. It is simple to hold the line by (1) increase revenue and (2) reduce spending. Management or mismanagement of the town of Lisbon cannot grasp this concept.

Taxpayers have to decide how much more they are going to take before we put a stop to this insanity. Come to the Town Council meeting and speak out against this year’s budget before it is too late since the taxpayers are NOT going to have an opportunity to vote on the municipal budget this year.

Larry Fillmore

Concerned Citizen