Rockland officials raid surplus account

ROCKLAND — Despite being urged by City Manager Cathy Sleeper not to resort to such methods, the City Council on Monday raided the city’s surplus of $101,422 in a 3-2 vote to keep the 1994-95 budget at last year’s level.

The decision means that taxpayers will see no increase on the municipal spending side in the short term, but, according to Sleeper, tampering with the surplus account could have long-term implications.

Sleeper said the city’s estimated $711,000 surplus was not enough to prevent the city from having to borrow in advance of taxes every year. Elimination of that costly activity was critical to maintaining proper fiscal control, one of the city’s most pressing long-term goals. “We just haven’t gotten to the safety point yet,” Sleeper said.

The proposal to use surplus to reduce the budget instead of cutting services was advanced by Mayor Thomas Molloy. Molloy adopted similar tactics during the last two years while a member of the Knox County Budget Committee. In that case taxpayers were spared an increase during the period. The surplus ran out this year, however, and the city’s county tax is back on the climb. The city’s share of the county tax increaseed $90,000 this year.

“For us to take away programs and equipment and then have $711,000 sitting in the bank and saying, `We just can’t afford it,’ I can’t live with that,” Molloy said.

Molloy noted that his taxes would increase $102 if the budget were allowed to increase. He suggested the tax bite on the city was getting out of hand and “was like putting a frog in cold water and turning on the heat slowly. He’s not going to jump out, but all of a sudden it’s boiling.”

Siding with the mayor on the proposal were Oram Lawry and Lewis Metcalf. Richard Warner and Michael McNeil opposed the measure.

Warner’s attempt to enact a 10 percent across the board budget cut was defeated by a 4-1 vote. Saying that “10 percent is not an unreasonable figure,” Warner claimed that property owners had reached the “misery factor … It’s very difficult for people to pay their taxes.” He suggested that the city was top heavy with staff and could absorb some cuts.

Warner charged that Molloy’s proposal “doesn’t reduce the cost of government, it only delays the payments … sooner or later somebody has to be responsible and say, `Let’s cut this back.’ ”

Passage of the motion means that the net budget will remain at $3,541,323, the same as last year. The overall gross budget was set at $5,188,000. That budget is $15,000 more than last year’s spending package. Major spending items are as follows:

The budget for the Police Department shows the largest increase, $65,057, bringing this year’s cost of running the department to $818,808.

The Fire Department’s budget proposal is $546,878, a decrease of $10,827. An additional $172,000 was set aside for fire hydrant rentals.

The Public Works budget is $574,733, a decrease of $103,200 that was caused by a major reduction in spending for new equipment.

The Solid Waste budget is $588,484, a decrease of $52,897.

The General Government budget is $434,815, a decrease of $8,933.

The Recreation Department budget is $118,221, an increase of $8,255.

The Library budget is $100,562, an increase of $6,948.

The Code Enforcement budget is $70,795, a decrease of $741.

The Public Landing budget is $84,121, an increase of $25,700.

The Welfare Department budget is $33,429, a decrease of $2,890.

The Debt Service budget is $385,127.