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By Bill Raynor
Smyrna Councilman, 2nd District
With all the problems with the economy, Smyrna could be planning on reducing costs with the following:
1. Reschedule street cleaning. Instead of once a week they could clean the streets every 10 days, reducing costs by a third.
2. Reduce contract work like office cleaning. It’s not too much to have employees clean their work areas and have a public works employee take out the trash and clean the restrooms.
3. Turn down the temperature 2 degrees in all buildings. The state and county are doing this now.
4. Shop around for insurance rates.
5. Come up with a written plan for saving gas in vehicles.
6. Install timers on the Christmas wreaths rather than sensors, eliminating them being on during cloudy days. Shorten the length of time they are on.
7. When job vacancies occur, delete them altogether.
8. Renegotiate all employee contracts, both management and union.
9. Trash collection. Consider other companies. Clayton went to once a week combined with recycling. Two thirds of our trash is recyclable. Even if the savings are small, we will be saving our landfills.
10. The budget should be gone over line item by line item. The 2009 budget was only reduced approximately $400,000. This is minor compared to the 23.8 million dollar budget.
The Kent County budget is approximately 23 million according to a recent article. They are cutting back as I write this. Taxes and electric must be reduced to help taxpayers keep their homes. There are too many foreclosures now and people are struggling. Tough decisions from council must be made. If you can’t make them, it’s time to get out. Too many citizens are affected. We must reduce labor costs as well as general cost of operations.
The federal stimulus package will not help with the above. It will not provide us with canoes, hybrid vehicles, and other luxuries. Smyrna has had their own stimulus package which we didn’t need, such as the large increase of employees and salaries along with other expenditures. In the past year approximately 8 new positions both new and unfilled occurred at a cost of over $300,000.
With the state and county cutting back and revenues declining we won’t get much help from them. What makes you think Smyrna is so resilient? Current management likes to compare us with other towns as far as employees, etc. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Some towns hire more employees whereby others contract work such as janitorial, landscaping, etc. It’s not what others do, it’s what Smyrna wants and needs.
The reason we didn’t have a tax increase as proposed by the finance chairman and town manager was not due to the budget. It was due to the revenue neutral plan whereby raising taxes and lowering electric was postponed. This was accepted rather than cut the budget more. If the same people are in control after April it will surface again. This is a multi-year plan. See what happens to your taxes at the end. Look at what happened to phase 1 of this plan. You had a tax increase in 2008. You can control your electric usage but you can’t control your taxes. The answer is to reduce costs. The choice is yours. Elections are just around the corner. Your vote is important.
By Bill Raynor
Smyrna Councilman, 2nd District
With all the problems with the economy, Smyrna could be planning on reducing costs with the following:
1. Reschedule street cleaning. Instead of once a week they could clean the streets every 10 days, reducing costs by a third.
2. Reduce contract work like office cleaning. It’s not too much to have employees clean their work areas and have a public works employee take out the trash and clean the restrooms.
3. Turn down the temperature 2 degrees in all buildings. The state and county are doing this now.
4. Shop around for insurance rates.
5. Come up with a written plan for saving gas in vehicles.
6. Install timers on the Christmas wreaths rather than sensors, eliminating them being on during cloudy days. Shorten the length of time they are on.
7. When job vacancies occur, delete them altogether.
8. Renegotiate all employee contracts, both management and union.
9. Trash collection. Consider other companies. Clayton went to once a week combined with recycling. Two thirds of our trash is recyclable. Even if the savings are small, we will be saving our landfills.
10. The budget should be gone over line item by line item. The 2009 budget was only reduced approximately $400,000. This is minor compared to the 23.8 million dollar budget.
The Kent County budget is approximately 23 million according to a recent article. They are cutting back as I write this. Taxes and electric must be reduced to help taxpayers keep their homes. There are too many foreclosures now and people are struggling. Tough decisions from council must be made. If you can’t make them, it’s time to get out. Too many citizens are affected. We must reduce labor costs as well as general cost of operations.
The federal stimulus package will not help with the above. It will not provide us with canoes, hybrid vehicles, and other luxuries. Smyrna has had their own stimulus package which we didn’t need, such as the large increase of employees and salaries along with other expenditures. In the past year approximately 8 new positions both new and unfilled occurred at a cost of over $300,000.
With the state and county cutting back and revenues declining we won’t get much help from them. What makes you think Smyrna is so resilient? Current management likes to compare us with other towns as far as employees, etc. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Some towns hire more employees whereby others contract work such as janitorial, landscaping, etc. It’s not what others do, it’s what Smyrna wants and needs.
The reason we didn’t have a tax increase as proposed by the finance chairman and town manager was not due to the budget. It was due to the revenue neutral plan whereby raising taxes and lowering electric was postponed. This was accepted rather than cut the budget more. If the same people are in control after April it will surface again. This is a multi-year plan. See what happens to your taxes at the end. Look at what happened to phase 1 of this plan. You had a tax increase in 2008. You can control your electric usage but you can’t control your taxes. The answer is to reduce costs. The choice is yours. Elections are just around the corner. Your vote is important.
