Back in August, I had requested a line-by-line comparison of the FY'05 and FY'09 budgets. I finally got the information for FY'06 and FY'09 (kudos to FinComm Administrator Jill Bishop) and crunched some numbers.
The result is a nine page spreadsheet. It's too big to show here (I'll email it to anyone who asks), but here's a part.
The blank cells (without even a zero) are the result of merging the two budgets. There are some lines in FY'06 that did not exist in FY'09 and vice versa. Here you can see one of several 'Fuel and power' lines (line 222), which were present in FY'06, but were merged with other 'Fuel and power' lines into the VEHICLE GASOLINE - 01425 in FY'09.
Remember that this is raw data, so we can't draw many conclusions from it. However, it does give us a place to start asking questions. For example, under STREET LIGHTING - 01424 we had a 27.8 percent increase. Why? Did we add 27.8 percent more street lights? Did electric rates increase by 27.8 percent?
Raw data or not, it is instructive. You can't see it in this clip, but between FY'06 and FY'09, the interest payments on LONG TERM EXCLUDED DEBT - 01753, LONG TERM UNEXCLUDED DEBT - 01754, and SHORT TERM EXCLUDED DEBT - 01755 increased by 12.9 percent, 91.9 percent and 766 percent respectively. This represents nearly $2 million in additional interest payments. Why we are spending $2 million more in interest? Are we really borrowing that much more? Or was this because of an increase in interest rates?
There's food for thought here, which is exactly why I asked for these numbers.
2 comments:
Brent,
It's important to remember that any account with a ++ to the right of it, can't be spent on anything except that item. The one thing that we are never told at Town Meeting is what represents "other expenses"? I personally feel that each warrant book should included every line item in each departments budget and not just a 3 or 4 line listing in our book. Why can't we have the same information that each Department Head has? Is it maybe because Mr. Whritenour doesn't want us to see where he is robbing from Peter to pay Paul for his what he calls his needed conferences every year. I did read in the paper that those so called conferences are in his contract. Speaking of his contract, I have been to the Town Hall on several occasions to ask for a copy of his contract and it seems that either they can't find it or they want to check with "Frank Duffy" to see if they can give it out! It appears that you have a copy. Is it public information? If so, maybe that too should be a handout at Town Meeting so that we can see how much he is really costing us above and beyond our legal expenses which he has occured and more to come in the future. I think you should also make the public aware that you have a blog for the public to state their opinion. Maybe every Selectman should have one and then the public might be heard. I also agree with a previous comment from another blogger that they would vote for you again because you represent the public. Thanks for your comments.
Brent,
Whow that is wonderful research and more I hope to come. I could not agree more with the previous "anonoymous" Let us all see what is in Mr. Whritenour's contract. I think it could be a real "enlightenment"
thank you for all of your hard work
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