The observations of one outraged Milan resident on the planning of the Town’s 2009 budget
December 2008

Well, Sarah Palin had “Joe Six-Pack,” and now, according to Republican Town Board member Bobbie Egan, it seems Milan has “Veuve Clicquot Tom.”

In an upcoming year that will have seen the Town’s budget planned with exceptional care and discipline, ultimately resulting in a 15.4% increase in taxes, apparently Ms. Egan continued to think it was perfectly fine to ask Milan’s residents to cough up more – the cost of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot (“about forty to fifty dollars per household,” she claimed) – to pave Odak Farm Road.  In a rather petulant and over-staged attempt to make her point, Ms. Egan announced this as she hoisted said bottle onto the table during the November 17th special board meeting convened to adopt the Town’s 2009 final budget. (Mommy and Daddy, I don’t care if your income has been cut way back and you’re trying to figure out how pay the electric bill!  I want a new road for Christmas!) At a time when even Tom Odak himself thinks paving Odak Farm Road is inappropriate, it would seem Ms. Egan is clearly oblivious to the ways of prudence and restraint! Indeed, even more than this, it would seem Ms. Egan has an agenda.

It would also seem that this Town would have been in deep doo-doo if Democratic Town Board member Ross Williams hadn’t come to the rescue and assembled a livable 2009 budget for Milan . . . a budget our collective Republican Board members, led by Republican Town Supervisor Dick Barrett, were incapable of drafting . . . a budget that, left in those same inept Republican hands, would have resulted in a nearly 40% increase in taxes.

If you were unable to attend the various Town workshops and meetings on Milan’s 2009 budget, here’s some background.

As they are mandated to do, the Town Board began working on the tentative and then preliminary budget for 2009 back in September. As the law states, this budget must then be finalized no later than the third Thursday of November of each year. The hope, of course, is that partisan sentiments and agendas are put aside and all concerned work in earnest for the greater good; the presumption is that all concerned are capable of understanding how a government budget is derived, how money ebbs and flows through government, and how to maximize the positive and minimize the negative impacts to that budget. A good sense of trending and forecasting doesn’t hurt either.  Having sat through a number of workshops, meetings, hearings and the like, I can tell you this is precisely what did not happen.

From the outset, it was clear that Republican Supervisor Barrett was in over his head. This was obvious as early as June, when Mr. Barrett sent the Town’s residents his (now infamous) “sky is falling” memo (you can see the memo here ). But even as the months passed there seemed to be no learning curve, as our Supervisor continued to demonstrate his inability to grasp how things work. Witness his insisting (over and over again!) on dividing the year by its twelve months to figure out the budget. What Supervisor Barrett failed to understand (right up to the end) is that, unlike a typical household budget, government budgets always run “behind,” pretty much by definition. What Supervisor Barrett also failed to understand (right up to the end) is that there will be enough money to run the government in the beginning of ’09, despite the lag in receiving income; and that a tight January and February is pretty much government business as usual, even in lush years. In effect, what Supervisor Barrett failed to realize (right up to the end) is how to draft a government budget.

Then filter in Republican Board member Egan’s position: to be adamant about asking Milan’s residents to pay for an “ideal” budget (which would have cost us an increase of 36% in the tax rate and an increase of 40% in the tax levy) despite these most “un-ideal” of times. In these days of a death-spiraling national economy and the Republican greed that triggered our collective financial woes, one cannot help but see the Ms. Egans of the world as emblematic of the whole mess. In her insistence throughout the process that (roughly paraphrased) “the symbol of Milan’s beauty is its lovely roads,” Ms. Egan took an inflexible stand that the Highway Department should therefore receive all the money it wants, and it should pave all the Town’s roads as originally and “ideally” proposed back in September. Right up to the end she voted “no” on one budget line after another, metaphorically stamping her feet in a teenage-like brat attack.  (It should be noted, however, that Ms. Egan was willing to eliminate the $250 allotment for the Seniors’ picnic in a purported show of her willingness to work together and “cut the fat.”)

Then filter in Republican Board member David Byrne’s inability to keep up with the process, puzzling over spreadsheets and constantly clueless as to which of the many and various drafts was “current.” (The continued “huh?” look on Mr. Byrne’s face throughout most of the proceedings would have been funny if he was trying to understand only the Rec Committee budget. Given that he was grappling with much more serious issues, it wasn’t funny at all—it was frightening.)

Had I not repeatedly checked my surroundings to give myself reality checks, I might have thought I was watching an SNL skit, this time focused on our own local Republican government players.

The bottom line is this: Had not Democratic Board member Ross Williams sent out his notice to all Milan’s residents to alert us to the goings-on and warn us that the Republicans were trying to pass a stealth budget with minimal public comment, we would have all been looking at a 36% increase in our taxes before anyone could say Happy New Year! (You can see Ross’s letter here)

Our Republican leaders would have been quite content to reach right into our pockets to pay for their ineptness and/or their brattiness. “Tax and spend Democrats” indeed.

Only Ross Williams seemed to know how government and government budgeting work.  Only Mr. Williams seemed to insist that he and Supervisor Barrett had to work together to motivate  Highway Superintendent Glenn Butler to re-calculate his numbers based on the (now declining) prices of diesel, gas, and petroleum-based products. Only Mr. Williams seemed to have the presence of mind to assemble a newly drafted tentative budget that would address the important needs of the Town but would delay those items that would just have to wait. Only Councilperson Williams seemed to appreciate how to move money from here to there, how to borrow prudently and pay back wisely, how to begin to offset the budget for 2010. And only Councilperson Williams seemed to be responsible enough, capable enough and caring enough to do all this correctly, ethically and with consideration for Milan’s residents . . . many of whom will have to squeeze their own household budgets to come up with the 15.4%  increase, but would have been potentially crushed by the 36% increase.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you Ross Williams!

And from the bottom of my heart I say that it will take a really (really) long time and lots (and lots) of change before I ever vote again for any Republican who might be in a position to shape my or my Town’s (or, for that matter, my country’s) financial future.