ARE WE HEADED TOWARD FULLY FUNDING SERVICES WITH FEES AND REVENUE?

Just as in the private sector, the cost to the Town of doing business is continuously rising. State and federal subsidies/revenue sharing is diminishing. Even with Prop 2-1/2 and new growth, the town's resources are not sufficient to sustain the level of services expected by the community.
The water and sewer enterprise funds are supposed to be funded fully by rates and fees. The Harbor is revenue neutral although all the fees it collects go into the general fund - as do the ambulance fees collected by the Fire Department. Neither are credited to these departments as offsets. We should fix that.
The question before us today is in regard to the Transfer Facility (or The Dump as us old-timers will always call it). Right now it costs $642,000 that is partially offset by revenues from recycling and fees of $352,000 leaving a deficit of $290,000. The majority of the revenue (about $300,000) comes from the sale of stickers and blue bags. Do we double the cost of these to make up the deficit? Or do we as tax payers have the reasonable expectation that a portion of our taxes will go to support trash removal? I don't know the answer and am looking to you for input. Please take a minute to participate in the poll. 


A bigger question is what should our taxes pay for? Police, fire, schools, town administration, maintenance (building and infrastructure), capital expenditures, library, recreation, athletics, senior services, trash collection? Followed by what of these, if any, should be user fee based? Should, for example, permitting (Conservation, Planning, Board of Health) be paid for solely by application fees? Or do some or all of these provide a benefit to the community at large and deserve some portion of our tax dollars?


The Town/School cost of doing business including health insurance, benefits, pensions, unemployment and contractual obligations is unsustainable. What level of services do we want? What are we willing to pay? It's a conversation I'm not looking forward to having but it's one the Town is going to have to have - and sooner rather than later.




Results of Poll: HOW SHOULD THE TRANSFER FACILITY BE FUNDED?

Fees & revenue only	11 (37%)
Fees & revenues with tax dollar subsidy	15 (51%)
Privatize the TF	3 (10%)
Require private trash pickup	0 (0%)

Votes so far: 29