While many municipalities are struggling with cutbacks related to the sour economy, the town of Coupeville’s budget situation isn’t nearly so dire.
Town officials are busy developing the 2009 budget. The Coupeville Town Council held a workshop last week to go through, line-by-line, a preliminary copy of the town’s $2.1 million budget.
Mayor Nancy Conard said that tight budgeting by underestimating revenue and overestimating expenses “is what is saving our bacon this year.”
Sales tax revenue has spiked in recent years but is starting to decline. Conard pointed out that the town never used the extra revenue for anything that would have been a renewable expense, such as staff costs. For example, the town had budgeted $300,000 in sales tax revenues in 2007 but received $476,000 in revenues. Conard said the $111,000 of the extra revenue came from sales taxes paid with construction of the new high school.
However, the town is continuing to budget receiving $300,000 in sales taxes, which is an amount Conard predicts the town could collect in 2009. The town could see another influx of sales tax revenues that would come in when the public library expansion begins.
“This is the difference between us and the other municipalities that are hurting right now,” Conard said during the workshop session.
An early draft of the budget shows there will be a 4 percent cost-of-living increase for town staff. Conard added in an interview after the meeting there won’t be any staff reductions this year. Officials had to make small cuts throughout the budget to make up for the cost of living adjustment.
The town is limited in increasing its property tax collections by 1 percent. For Coupeville, that is an extra $3,100, which Conard said isn’t enough to cover the increase in the town’s liability insurance. Officials are budgeting to receive an additional $10,000 in taxes related to new construction.
Coupeville also receives a 6 percent tax on any utility inside town limits. The taxes are charged to the town’s sewer and water, electricity, garbage, cable and telephone. The town is budgeting to receive $276,990 from those taxes in 2009, which is up from $250,100 the town budgeted to receive in 2008.
Officials are also considering increasing fees residents pay. Those fees include the Recreation Hall rental, shoreline permits and conditional use permits in nonresidential zones. They are considering the increase so the fees reflect the true cost of operating the hall and the costs of processing permits.
Preliminary drafts of the town budget will be available Nov. 10 and the Town Council has scheduled a public hearing during its Nov. 25 meeting.
While the town is fortunate staff doesn’t have to be cut this year, things could be different next year if the economy continues to slump, Conard said.
