Town News: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – budget season! 

I’ll admit it, before I became a member of the Board of Selectmen, I found the budget process to be confusing and hard to follow.  I would hear folks in town say things like “this is a tough budget year,” or “this is a challenging budget cycle,” but I didn’t really understand why.  Why is one year more challenging than another?  Isn’t it always hard to find enough dollars to support all the needs and wants of our town? Well, the answer is, it depends, and there’s no doubt this year is a doozy.  

Last year, after several years of minimal to no tax increases, we had a very large tax increase due in large part to a property revaluation that occurred at the height of the market, a rapid rise in inflation and the end of Covid-era stimulus.  With the shock of last year’s increase still fresh in our minds, now comes another budget barreling down the parkway, and the ingredients that made last year so tricky are still very much in play.  Costs haven’t come down, in fact in many cases they’ve only gotten worse (health care as a prime example), funding from the state and federal governments is limited and uncertain and contractual obligations to our town employees (non-discretionary spending) make up the vast majority of our budget.  We do a good job of bringing new business to town to take pressure off our residents, but these businesses have a variety of infrastructure needs (fire, police, roads and other services) that burden other parts of our budget.   

So, what does this all mean? It means it’s going to be a tough budget year.  Everyone wants to avoid another tax hike AND we want to ensure our town departments and the Board of Ed have the resources they need to provide high quality services for our community and an excellent education for our kids.  

But, it’s not as dire as it seems!  Over the last few months each of our town departments, including our Board of Education, has presented thoughtful budgets to our Board of Finance, making every effort to keep their increases minimal and necessary.   Now, of course, not all requests are created equal, and the Board of Finance will need to make a series of choices about which particular increases are needs and which are wants.  And, at the risk of letting the cat out of the bag, I think we will likely see a mill rate increase this year to support the proposed budget.  How large of an increase remains to be seen, but I can tell you that when folks come out on April 13 for our public hearing at the high school they should feel good that what they are hearing and seeing is the result of a robust and honest conversation between our department heads, subject matter experts and elected officials about the state of our town and how to best allocate our resources for the common good.  

It has been said that all politics is local.  Well, I certainly wish that were the case, because we do politics pretty well here in North Haven.  Under our town meeting form of government our residents are the legislative body.  Meaning, rather than a town council and mayor making decisions for people, we operate under a more direct form of democracy where residents assemble to directly debate, vote on, and set policy on town matters like budgets, bonding and taxes.  We have a unique independent spirit here in town, grounded in the principle that the People, with a capital “P,” are the most qualified to make the decisions that most directly impact their lives.  This is the cornerstone of our way of doing business.  Don’t get me wrong, our elected officials play a vital role in managing the day-to-day operations of the town, but we look to our residents to make the ultimate decision on what happens in North Haven.   There’s no doubt this form of government demands a greater level of participation from an engaged citizenry than most places in America, but we are certainly up to the challenge.   North Haven is a special place, and your voice and perspective are necessary to a well functioning town government.  

With that in mind, I look forward to seeing you on April 13 at the high school for our town’s annual meeting. I encourage you to come out and see what our town departments have been working so diligently on - come curious, ask questions, and embrace your role in North Haven’s governance. 

-North Haven Third Selectman, David Cohen