FACTS ON THE TAX INCREASE FROM THE TOWN MGR

Michael Boaz, Town Mgr, wrote the following information to Lee Wittmann, concerning the tax increase:

Lee, We really appreciate your efforts to keep the Town's people informed of what is happening. However, there are a few factual problems with your most recent newsletter. First, the Town is not purchasing nine new vehicles. We are replacing three trucks that are 8 years old. We are replacing a Do-all sanding truck that is 10 years old. We are replacing one of our backhoes that is seven years old. We are replacing a motor grader that does not work and is almost 15 years old. We are replacing our mowing tractor that is 13 years old. As you well know, equipment does not last forever and must be replaced. We try to hold onto our equipment as long as possible, possibly too long, but at some point we must replace the equipment. Town Councils in the past have chosen to push back the replacement of equipment and at some point this catches up with you. We are planning to buy one new truck, meaning not a replacement, for the Building Maintenance person. We are not hiring 9 new employees. We have added a crew, of 3, to handle right of way maintenance. As we were already paying for these men for half a year, we are just making these positions permanent rather than temporary. These employees will be responsible for maintenance of our road right of ways. We are adding an employee for Building Maintenance. The Town is responsible for maintenance at the Town Hall, Public Works, 2 WWTP, the Water Plant, and Buckeye Rec Center. With this many buildings, there are constantly items that need to be repaired and the Town has never had anyone on staff to handle these type of problems. We also plan to hire an administrative person in Public Works to help Riley handle various administrative functions. We hope that this will free him up to do different things and help improve efficiency. That comes to 6 new employees. While there is a total increase in salary and benefit costs of $592,000, $198,000 of this increase is for the new employees. The Council has authorized a 3% COLA increase for employees. The CPI, a standard measure of inflation, increased 4.1% from Feb 07 to Feb 08. This means that employee salaries, before Merit, actually decreased by 1.1%. This is because the buying power of what we pay them decreased, not their actual salaries. We are doing less of a COLA than the other Towns in the area and this makes it difficult for us to compete for employees. The Council also made 3% of salaries available for merit increases. In addition, we had an increase in our health insurance. The original quote would have been a 28% increase, but we were able to negotiate with our carrier and make some adjustments to our plan that brought that increase down to about $1,000, not including the additional costs for the new employees. The Town's current tax rate is $.55/$100 of valuation. The tax, as it currently stands, will be $.64/$100 of valuation. I prepared and presented a budget to the Town Council that was balanced with a $.05 increase. Three Council members chose to add an addition $.04 to that rate. I can't explain to you why this is. The motion to increase the rate included direction to use the additional funds to pay for the replacement motor grader that has been authorized by Council. I am not sure if you are aware, but the motion to increase the tax rate by .05 cents was made by Gil Adams and seconded by Rick Owen. On May 29, this passed with a 3-2 vote with Gil, Rick, and Pete voting in favor and Randy and Alan voting against. On June 10, Gil made the same motion, Rick seconded it and it failed 2-3. Randy made a motion to increase the tax rate an additional 4 cents and Alan seconded and it passed 3-2 with Pete, Randy, and Alan voting in favor and Gil and Rick voting against. I know you were at the meeting, but I think it is important to let folks know what happened. The Mayor has not called a special meeting. The June 10 Council meeting was recessed until June 17 at 2:00 PM by a unanimous vote of the Town Council. The Mayor is empowered to call special meetings with 48 hours notice and emergency meetings with as much notice as is possible. He has not used this power however. If you ever want to check your facts and figures with me, please do not hesitate to let me know. As for you request for information. The Town Council has established a policy that we will charge for copies made. The tax records that you request do not contain emails or phone numbers. I am not yet convinced that I have to give email addresses to anyone and am still researching this issue. The tax records total well over 1600 pages and therefore the charge for these copies would be $420 based on the Council's policy of 25 cents per page. Please let me know if you want me to make the copies. Michael BoazTown ManagerTown of Beech Mountain(828) 387-4236

Nancy