Budget Cuts And/Or Tax Increases

I recently sent an email to Mayor Hopkins expressing my concerns about the proposal to raise utility taxes without making any budget cuts. Ruston has drawn on reserve funds to balance the budget this year.

Turns out the town has addressed both sides of this coin. His answer is informative and encouraging. He agreed I could share it with you'all. Contact information for all our elected officials is listed on the sidebar to the left. Be sure and keep the conversation going. It's important that our leaders don't make these important decisions in a vacuum. ~ Karen

This remains a balancing act and one that we haven’t been very good at in the past. We have made cuts and will continue to make them where needed. Some of the things council and I have done in the way of cost cutting – we eliminated the office assistant position, we eliminated the weekend emphasis patrol’s and have one officer on duty, we employed (prior to my time) a new town attorney whom is on retainer (huge savings) and replaced the town planning service with a more affordable service – much better quality/ service I might add. We are doing everything in our power to avoid litigation by being professional and diligent in our dealings with everyone. The litigation costs have been excessive and unacceptable – however this does not mean we are rolling over if we are confronted – it means we are handling our affairs properly and professionally.

We are not taking the increased taxation approach lightly. Council’s approach to this issue is that we cannot fundamentally run our town differently than other municipalities do. Meaning – we are in the condition we are in because we did not keep pace with the overall needs of the town. When this was a mill town we had subsidies and those offset our costs (need for taxes). Our tax position is quite a bit less than our neighbors in Tacoma and yet they have economies of scale working for them. For us to believe we can offer services for less than Tacoma is up for debate.

The other side of the coin is we have some residents that want the services, don’t want cuts, and are willing to pay more. They are probably a very small minority because I think everyone’s position is we don’t want services reduced and we don’t want increased taxes – that is the dilemma. Our projected expenses based on our 6 month review is approximately $900,000 (not including litigation payments) and our projected revenue based on our six month review is $790,000.

I am focused on encouraging growth, helping The Commencement come on line, promoting our town to anyone that will listen, helping Pt. Ruston become a reality, and the revenue will follow. Strong revenue growth will alleviate the need for increased taxation in the short term but at some point we have to adjust our tax base – but whether now is the right time or not is what council is currently dealing with.

Well – not sure if I have answered or properly addressed your issues but we have communicated. I know you are aware that I do not set policy so your council members will need to hear from you as well.