By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT- The City of Claremont has approved their 2023 budget.
During a city council meeting on June 22, 2022, board members voted to approve the general fund budget for next year. Other departments whose budgets were voted on included the water, sewer, and police. The total city budget of $18,413,041 is a $562,350 increase from this year.
Originally looking at a budget closer to $18 million, the city council voted to add an additional $505,000 for paving and sidewalks. The city historically has had difficulty finding funds for the paving of roads and sidewalks and, in previous years, has not allocated funds from the budget for it. The $505,000 increase will come from a police department budget reduction totaling $105,000 with the remainder coming from a raise in taxes. The city estimates a 52 cent tax increase, totaling $15.78 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The city also hopes to see $277,495 from SB 401, a senate bill that will make appropriations to the department of transportation for local highway aid. According to Claremont Mayor Dale Girard, it would, “give us a hair under $800,000” for paving and sidewalks.
“I’m very concerned with the gap years we had on this. I understand we are very hopeful there will be some availability to take care of paving. I just don’t feel as though we shouldn’t be investing in ourselves. If we don’t invest in trying to get some street and sidewalk work done.I just feel as though we are getting ourselves way behind,” said Girard.
Initially, interim City Manager John MacLean suggested bonding as a solution to the lack of funding for roads. The city has a $3.4 million bond that will be retiring in 2024, the same year a new bond would require payment; should they accept the bond and begin paying for it, it wouldn’t have a tax impact. The City Council voted unanimously though to add paving and sidewalks to the city budget with the increase. Many of them are not in support of bonding as it would push Claremont’s debt payments beyond what they have planned.
MacLean also pointed out that while it seems like a significant increase, when you counterbalance with the fact that the City has bond capacity, it will reduce the overall tax balance and the freed up tax capacity from the school, it does fit within our budget scheme.
“As much as I hate to support this, I don’t see much of an alternative this year. I don’t support bonding for pavement projects. I think we are doing the responsible thing going forward,” said City Councillor Jon Stone.
“I’ve had a lot of comments about bonding . As I’ve sat here, the one year we approved bonding we’ve been trying to play catch up. I’ve learned to accept compromise. This is something that councilor Stone asked for, a number, not zeroed out. So I believe this is a compromise,” said City Councilor Nick Koloski.
Other aspects of the budget that were passed include a tentative sanitation budget. This budget includes funds for the Claremont Transfer Station, a city owned program that intends to be privatized. It had been discussed at this meeting with the intention of making a decision but the Council opted to table the discussion of the Transfer Station until the next city council meeting.
The Council also unanimously passed the police department budget of $3.27 million as well as a tentative sewer budget of $2.89 million.
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