Robert Fisher
Staff Reporter
KILLALOE – The agenda for the May 21 council meeting for Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR) did not include presentation of the 2024 budget. Council revised the agenda for the meeting to move the mayor’s address later in the meeting. Prior to the meeting, Mayor David Mayville handed out documents related to the budget.
Generally, budgets are presented to council by the chief administrative officer and/or the senior financial staff member. The presentation typically includes significant detail about the budgets for the various departments and provides council an opportunity to ask questions, seek clarification and recommend changes. Part of the purpose is to make the process transparent to taxpayers.
Mayville’s presentation included summaries for various operating departments, there was no discussion of the process or content of the budget by or from council. Mayville’s presentation was accompanied by a political message.
“During my campaign,” Mayville said, “I promised that I would be transparent and show respect to the budget process by asking questions and passing this information forward.” He said last year, the first budget for this council, “the decision was made to put a Band-Aid on the budget and taxes were increased by five per cent.” He said council had no choice this year and, “we are proposing a 17 per cent tax rate increase as well as having our water and sewage rates go up by 10 per cent.”
The result is an increase of $121/$100,000 of assessed value for residential property owners in the township. Residents in the Village of Killaloe will see an additional $87.29 on their tax bills due to the special area rate for the village, for a total increase of $208.20.
Mayville implied that past councils didn’t scrutinize budgets closely enough, stating, “We can no longer just say yes to lines that come in under budget, we must ask the questions about what goes into the budget line. We must dig deeper everywhere to see where and what we are spending on.
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