A number of people have indicated they are uncertain about who makes the final decisions on spending in Chatham.

The answer is “You do.”

CCT’s position is there should be no property tax increase for fiscal 2010, except for those who have added new value to their property (new building, a deck or whatever), for the operating budget or for capital project that aren’t demonstrably urgent and can’t be delayed until better economic times.

Chatham voters at the Annual Town Meeting and Town Election in May make the decisions. The ATM this year begins May 11th (it can go beyond one day) and the Town Election is May 14th. It is important for voters concerned about town spending growth to attend town meeting AND STAY TO THE END. Strange things can happen if voters aren't vigilant.

Simply put, the process is this:

The Town Manager William Hinchey prepares a spending plan and presents it to the five-person elected Board of Selectmen. The Town Manager has reviewed all the spending requests of all town departments EXCEPT for the School Department. The School Department spending plan is in the hands of the elected School Committee. The Town Manager includes the spending plan approved by the School Committee in the overall town spending plan without any change.

Despite the world financial crisis, the town’s spending plan calls for an increase in spending of $1.268 million, of which approximately $1.1 million is attributable to a 10.52% increase in spending approved by the School Committee.

The Selectmen are giving what is perhaps unprecedented attention to the spending plan. They have identified the largest single item of increase in the budget is about $713,000 for salary increases of one sort or another. According to our calculations, these increases are roughly equal between the School Department and all other town departments.

Since the town has been very generous to all town employees in terms of compensation and other benefits, the Selectmen proposed to all town employees they accept a voluntary freeze for fiscal year 2010, thus saving $700,000 or so. The answers of the employees (most of which are represented by unions) are due this week. If the employees consent, then the spending increases that have to be peeled back are in a manageable area of about $300,000, less than one percent of the $32.757 million budget, to freeze the property tax level for the operating budget at the fiscal 2009 level for those who didn’t add improvements to their properties.

In just a week of so, the Selectmen will hand over the spending plan with their changes and recommendations to the Finance Committee for its review. The Finance Committee has been informally reviewing the budget already for weeks. The Selectmen and the Finance Committee have suggested to the School Committee they subject their spending plan to further review, but no changes have as yet been forthcoming.

On or about April 1, after all the back and forth, the Warrant goes to print with all the recommendations. The Warrant is what the voters who attend the Annual Town Meeting and vote in the election a few days later act on. The voters have the final say. They can change the spending plan or reject it in total. For example, voters can reject a compensation freeze the employees have agreed to or refuse to fund any compensation increases if the employees have insisted on their increases. The same is true for capital spending. (The town, in effect, has two budgets, an operating budget and a capital budget.) Whatever the recommendations of the Selectmen, the School Committee or the Finance Committee, the voters decide.

So it’s important for all concerned taxpayer voters to be informed and show up at the Annual Town Meeting and Election on May 11th and 14th. There is a certain intimidation factor in speaking out at a town meeting of several hundred, but one should not worry about that this year because the stakes are too important to stay silent.

Chatham Concerned Taxpayers will be offering suggestions and guidance all the way up to Town Meeting and helping to organize speaking on the floor as well. While we hope we can give full support to the recommendations put before Town Meeting, as of this writing it is impossible to know if that will be the case. We will be prepared to advocate in support of the taxpayers.

We welcome the input and suggestions of all who believe this is a time for fiscal prudence. For taxpayer voices to be heard it’s important that we reach as many as possible. Please send the emails of like-minded taxpayers who don’t want to see property tax increases to chathamct@comcast.net. And stay in touch not only by these email alerts but by regularly checking our website www.chathamct.org.

These are extraordinary times and the voices of the taxpayers must be heard. In the last analysis, it is the votes of the taxpayers which will decide the outcome in May. The future of Chatham's spending is in your hands.