 welcome to ongoing election coverage by town meeting television. My name is Bridget Higdon. I'm the managing editor at the Essex reporter. This is one of many forums being brought to you in advance of local elections and town meeting on the first Tuesday in March. Town meeting is traditionally where voters weigh in on local government representation, municipal budgets, school budgets, and local ballot items. All candidates on the ballot are invited to participate in town meeting TV election forums. Tonight we'll be hearing about the Essex municipal budget as well as its local ballot items. Town meeting election forums introduce you to community decision makers and connect you with the issues that shape your local community. If you are watching this live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. Again, that's 802-862-3966. You can watch town meeting TV on Comcast channel 1087, Burlington Telecom channel 17 and 217, as well as online at town meeting TV's YouTube page. I'm going to turn it over now to deputy town manager Greg Dugan and Essex select board chair Andy Watts. They've got a presentation for us here this evening. Thank you for joining. All right. Thanks for having us. Greg, go ahead bring up the presentation. So we'll be talking about the FY23 budget for the town of Essex. There we go. The proposed budget, I should say, to be voted on March 1st. Go for it, Greg. Okay. Before the budget was developed, the select board was asked to provide its goals for the budget. There were four that were brought up, the first being the continue funding for equity initiatives and mental health support. Within that category, we didn't the budget does include a $30,000 appropriation for our equity committee. We've also are continuing to fund board stipends. We've started this fiscal year, actually just recently providing stipends for all of our committee volunteers to help with to try to diversify who we have on the boards. Greg, I think you accidentally went forward one. So folks can afford to have a babysitter, child care if they need it, those kind of things. So we're continuing that. Also, we've added funding for the Essex Community Justice Center and we are creating a community affairs liaison within our police department, within the police budget. And that'll we'll have more discussion about that on a future slide. Next thing was to consider how to address climate change in our programs. We are purchasing three police vehicles this year. All of them will be either hybrid or electric vehicles. So that's that's what we're doing in that regard. We wanted to minimize the financial impact of separation. There's a potential that that the village of Essex Junction will be separating from the town. There's a bill before the legislature right now to to address a new charter for the potentially for the city of Essex Junction. So the remaining portion of the town, we're trying to understand what we can do to try to minimize the impact. The biggest thing that we've done at this point is to eliminate one of the positions in the manager's office. We'll have numbers about that later, but that was that's the biggest change in that category at this point. And the last thing on this, this was to address the impact of separation like tenure work toward tax equity over the past several years, we've been moving portions of the village budget into the town budgets so that the village expenditures were funded by town taxes rather than just by some of the village town expenditures were funded by town taxes rather than simply by the village. We were hoping to continue to continue that effort in case separation doesn't happen for one and the other is also interestingly the more money we move into this year's budget the less we'll have to move into it later when we if separation does occur. So it was kind of a smoothing effect for the the transition also to continue the the goodwill that we've we had been working with the village on moving more and more of their budgets into the into the town. But unfortunately that hasn't none of that has happened there isn't any any new efforts in place in this budget. But some of the existing measures will remain in place for the this transition year. And we'll talk more about that as well. So okay, go ahead, Greg move on. Some highlights on the for the general fund is we're using $431,000 of fund balance. This is leftover funds from previous years to offset some of the tax increase. There is a a fairly a larger than usual tax increase this year. I'll go through those numbers in a later slide. So we're again we're using some fund balance to to smooth that out. Also changes in our finance department and then the vehicle cost the police department typically we only buy two vehicles a year for the police department. This is a three vehicle years we're buying the third vehicle using fund balance rather than adding it to the the overall budget. There's a variety of staffing changes. I mentioned we're we're adding the community affairs liaison what we've done there is we've taken a vacant patrol position and converted into an administrative position with the with the function of community affairs liaison. We eliminated one management position but added an administrative support assistant to the manager. Previously the assistant to the manager was a village employee. So when we've as part of getting ready to potentially separate the shared management has ended and so the the assistant to the manager position we need to replace that because it will no longer no longer have anybody in that position after separation. Actually I misstated that shared management is ending regardless of whether separation has ended whether or will end regardless of whether separation occurs. So that's that's the other reason that we need to hire somebody there. We've added to 40 hour per week daytime per day and firefighters to help with our emergency response. That's that was a request from our fire chief. This one went back and forth and this is where we ended up with it. I think we'll definitely will help our our ability to satisfy the needs of the community for emergency service. This is the first full year of an economic development position which we established in the current fiscal year. In fact that individual was just recently hired and so it's a full year for that. It's a full year of part-time work for this person. Again started very recently and we'll continue into next year. We're also adding a full-time parks and rec tech position which will be shared between parks and public works. There's some big increases associated with the county and regional and health and human services to the tune of 228,912. I'll touch on those a little bit more and we get into some specifics on the numbers. One other thing we've done in this budget we've moved this police specific insurance costs to the police department costing center. This is because if separation occurs we have an agreement in place with the village to provide will be the city to provide police services under contract. So in order to make sure all of the costs are contained within the police budget we've moved those costs in there. And a lot of the other changes are tied to the potential separation. I'll touch on those as we as we get to them and talk about some of the amounts associated with those. Next slide Greg. Okay so services that are consolidated at this point we have a common police department which supports the entire town including the village. Our senior bus and senior programs are available to all town and village residents. Our clerk, we share a clerk's office between the village and the town. Our assessor is common. We do have a common information technology IT department. These ones with asterisks on them are services that are going to start separating during FY23 in anticipation of the formation of the city of Essex Junction. So IT, stormwater, highway, public works, administration and paving, then tax billing, collecting those we're going to start moving apart. The four at the top will remain in place at least for some time. The police contract is expected to be fairly long term and then we're still working on the details of the other three. The assessor is going to be, will be in place, we're anticipating that the town will be in a position to require a reassessment here over the next few years. So the assessor is going to remain common until that process is completed. But the senior programs in the clerk's office were still in discussions about how to, whether, how long to share those into the future. Okay, moving forward. The wastewater treatment plant is owned by the village of Essex Junction, will then be owned by the city. If there's a separation, there's a tri-town agreement. There's a separate agreement that deals with the wastewater treatment plant. Williston is part of it as is Essex Junction in the town of Essex. Essex Rescue is a shared service. It's not a municipal service. Essex Rescue is an independent nonprofit, remountant transit and Chittenden County Regional Planning Services. Those are regional entities that we have representatives on their boards, but they're not strictly, they're not town municipal services, but they are continued to be shared. And in the FY23 budget, the Essex Rescue, remountant transit, and CCRPC will be paid for through the town budget. Next slide. Okay. Services that no longer we share, we are eliminating the shared manager, the unified town and village manager. The current contract for that closes on February 25th, I believe is the date. And so beyond that point, the town and the village will have their own management. Finance administrative services are also being separated in the fairly short term. And then human resources and benefits administration ends concurrent with the shared management position as well. Fire Department alignment, we had been working to try to align the pay structure for the two fire departments that serve the community, one being the town fire department and being the village, those in the FY23 budget are going slightly separate ways based on the preference of the fire chiefs of the two departments. So we're no longer working to keep those aligned and we're letting each community do what they believe is best for their departments. And then recreation department alignment, we had the two recreation departments, both located as 75 Maple, that's come to an end, the Essex Parks and Rec has moved back out to 81, moved to 81 Main again. And so going forward, we, they won't be sharing a location, but there's still a discussion about access to recreation programs either side through FY23. Village residents will continue to have all the same access they've always had, nothing will change with regard to access to programs in FY23. Okay, next slide. This came together in a funny order. Okay, new programs for public safety, Essex Rescue is adding in additional ambulance coverage because of need. So the our contribution or requested contribution to Essex Rescue is increasing by 164,000 dollars. It's a pretty substantial increase that they've asked for, but it's the first of four that they've warned us, they're asking for that full increase will be paid for by the town budget this year. In future years, if the village separates, it will be on a per diem basis or per capita basis, I'm sorry, so that those approximately half will be paid by each. The two per diem firefighters I mentioned, we've added to ensure daytime covers, that's just under 90,000 was the adder there. We're continuing to fund our justice equity diversity and inclusion work. Again, the community affairs liaison and the police department. I mentioned the economic development coordinator. This is the first full year of a part-time coordinator for that. And then the full-time parks and parks and maintenance tech we share between parks and public works. So it's the big enhancements. Okay, so the FY 23 budget, the total proposed budget is 16.68 million. It's just under a $7500,000 increase over the current fiscal year, which is a 4.7 percent budget increase. The amount we'll collect in taxes is 5.1 percent increase. The estimated tax rate increase that a taxpayer will see is 4 percent, which is higher than we typically have supported. Typically, we're on the closer to 3 percent, but this is, I think, a unique year given the need to do some work to start the transition work associated with separation. There's some nuances with regard to why the numbers are different between the tax-leveling increase and the tax rate increase related to non-tax revenues. Some of our revenue comes from places other than taxes, and things are shifting around there. We're anticipating a 1 percent grand list increase that will offset some of the additional costs as well. Go ahead. In order of the biggest increases, or the increases in the budget appropriations, which are Essex Rescue, Green Mountain Transit, County Tax, those are separate entities that are not municipally operated, managed, or operated that we have to contribute to, or that we do contribute to. Our regular personnel costs, including benefits, is just under 100,000. Part of the agreement with the consolidation work that we've been doing is the Village Highway budget gets folded into the town budget, and they buy a memorandum of understanding or an agreement that we have in place. They can increase their budget by up to 6 percent without objection from the select board. So, this is within that. So, I guess in the category of increasing tax equity, this is probably one of the bigger separate line item pieces where the town is covering village expenses within the town budget. Vehicle purchases at 74k, stormwater maintenance, 58,000. Our insurances are up. We did, as I mentioned, we're funding justice equity diversity and inclusion work, including the stipends, is just under 45k. Professional services are up. This is hiring outside folks to do work for us. Election expenses are up as well, with mailing ballots to every active voter that those expenses have gone up considerably. We have a $22,000 transfer to capital, and then the remaining increases of smaller items that all add up, eventually $61,488. So, the total increase, as I said, was just under 750,000 for the budget. Next slide, Greg. Okay, so this one, this one I was tripped up on when I first read through it, but the reason that the total salary change is $75,000, but then when you look at the first bullet below that, it says there's a $157,000 increase because of new positions. But when you get down to the third budget, it says there's a net decrease of $100,000 because we have our long-standing Public Works Director who's retiring. And so there's there's there are puts and takes on this that in an aggregate add up to the $75,000 of salary change in the $23,600 of benefits change. So, again, we're adding the new positions, which is the fire department per DM. And Greg, that FTE listed here, is this the assistant to the manager? Or is that the? Oh, I am drawing a blank. I had it before. So I put it in there and that was, I think you're right. I think it's the assistant. Yeah, I think it's the assistant to the manager. Yeah. I mentioned our Public Works Director is retiring. And it's the Parks and Maintenance Tech position. Parks and Maintenance Tech position. Right. Okay. And then in the police department, we are that are generally where we where we underspend the most is in staffing our police department as everyone is experiencing is very difficult to hire police officers right now. So we we fully fund our police department, but often are unable to fill the positions. And so that the leftover funds from that gets swept into fund balance. And then we we have to, you know, we we have a policy around how we how we deal with that. And so in this this year, we're funding it at 94% to account for vacancies, this offset some of the salary and benefit costs. So then the net reduction for the police for salaries is is 20,000 relative to the last year. So I think that's that. Okay. Next one. Andy, I'll interject for just a moment to remind folks that we are welcoming questions. They can call in at 802-862-3966. Thank you. All right. Thanks. This next slide goes through a little bit more of those details. I won't go through it line by line, because we're probably getting pressed for time here. So this this details out the the gives it takes on the on the on the the prior slide. Go ahead, Greg, to the next. So the the estimated tax impact current general tax rate is point 5285. We're estimating it's going to go to 5497, which is a 4% increase, which on the the the example we use is a $280,000 home. The the increase on the $280,000 home would be $59.36 for the year. Again, this assumes the grandest growth of 1%. And the fact that we're using 431,000 from leftover funds to offset some of the tax rate increase. So if your home is worth more or less than then then this $280,000, you can scale it up or down if to get an estimate of what your your tax rate increase would be. Okay. Next, Greg, is it okay? And then this last slide is a pie chart that shows where the money goes. The police is the police department is the the largest component of that. And oh, yeah, right down on the lower left, it says the estimated total estimated taxes for that $280,000 home is $1,595. And so then this chart breaks out where those $1,595 would go. Again, the police is the biggest chunk. Public Works is the next biggest piece. And then general government, which includes the select board, the manager, the administrative staff for all of the departments. And then beyond that, it goes to culture and recreation, which includes parks and rec, and then smaller smaller pieces after that. So this is where the detail of where the money goes. And next slide, I think this might be it. Yep. All right. Thank you. So happy to take any questions. Does not seem like we have anybody on the line at this time. So I will take a moment to ask you both maybe talk a little bit about things that the select board or the town would have liked to have put in the budget, but have sort of cut back at this, you know, in terms of making, you know, proposing a reason budget to the taxpayers this year. So what were those conversations like? Oh, what did we not include? One of the big ones that comes to my mind, Andy went over the two Purdy and Firefighters are a fire chief that lasts for four Purdy and Firefighters. That's a matter of staffing. Yes, fire department right now is totally volunteer based. Volunteers are compensated for their time when they show up for respond to calls. But they have to come for their day jobs, they have to leave their homes on the weekends, they have to wake up in the middle of the night to come to these calls. So by having the Purdy and Firefighters included in the budget, it'll ensure that there's at least two staff at the fire department every day, every five days a week. Ideally, it would be more than that for the sake of public safety. The sake of public safety, but these two Purdy and Firefighters are a step in that direction and trying to make sure that we can provide rescue services, safety services to the community and more reliable services. Greg, you're right. You said the original request was four for a full year, was that right? And then it moved around quite a bit in our discussion. It went to one for half a year at one point. And then we had a lot of discussion about the risk of not being able to support what the intended to support. So then it went to a half a year with two and then I think we pulled it back fully to the full year with two. We didn't go all the way back to four for a full year, but there was some give and take on that, Bridget. We went to, we had a lot of discussion about that and really wanted to make sure that we were providing at least the minimum for the community safety. Absolutely. Sort of landed in the middle there for a company. Capital funding is another one. We have a capital tax, two cents, which is outside of the operating budget. We do have transfers in the operating budget to capital. We always would love to be able to set some more money aside. It's planning for the future. It's making sure our roads stay paved, our buildings are maintained, our vehicles are on a good replacement schedule. But as well as one of those areas where we have to fully fund it to be able to present a validable tax increase and a validable budget to the community. But it is something that we want to look at in the future, go forward without a test fund or capital expenses. We've got just a couple minutes left here. Is there anybody watching who does have a question? You're welcome to chime in. Might be nice, Greg, to put up that slide one more time about the tax impact on the voter with the percent increase in the dollar amount. This one, Bridget, or one of the previous ones? I think the previous one, yeah. Let's see that one more time. Yes, great. No, so we're talking about a 4% increase over last year. And I've got this laid out here for a homeowner with a $280,000 home. And if I can just clarify that $280,000, that is the assessed value that you see under tax bill. It's not zero in type of the value of your home. It's probably going to be higher than that. But here's the tax protestant, which the town has on record. Great. We do have a call. Caller, you go ahead and ask your question. Okay, I'm just curious how you figure you're going to save $100,000 with the Public Works Director retiring. Thank you. So that's a combination of salary and benefits. And we're promoting from within. We're not hiring to replace. I was just going to say, it's not really an elimination of a position, but the individual that's been in that job for a long time is retiring. Salary and benefits come out. And then we're two individuals were promoting to fill the work that was done by that one position. Okay. Thank you. I just wondered, because I know that report where the Public Works Director was very concerned about replacing some positions that were picked up. So thank you very much. I think that is just about our time here. So thank you very much, both to Greg and to Andy for joining us tonight. And thank you for everybody online who's watching or who called in. You can find this and more forums at www.ch17.tv. We ask you, please, don't forget to vote before March 1st. Early voting by mail is available by contacting your local town clerk's office. Polls will also be open on March 1st from 7am to 7pm. Thank you very much for watching. And to clarify, we're mailing, we're mailing to all active voters.