Town Council Candidates Question 4: The Budget

John Quattrocchi
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Question 4: Verona has just passed its budget for 2019. If you could shift spending around in
this budget, which aspects would you give more funding to and which lines would you reduce to do so? Please don’t increase the town’s spending–or our taxes.

Our local government in Verona, both Municipal and Board of Education, combined, comprise 81 cents of every property tax dollar we pay.  These are the only taxes that are used exclusively within our community in Verona.  All other taxes we pay – from the remaining 19 cents of property tax dollars, to our state and federal income taxes, gas tax, phone bill taxes, etc – are mostly used for purposes outside of Verona, and across the nation.  Therefore, I view our Town and Board of Education budgets as the most impactful spending that affects our quality of life, here at home.  Delivering the best quality of life and managing those budgets is one reason why I’ve worked so many years for our Board of Education and now, running for the Council.

There are two elements of the township budget that I consider the first to rethink: How much we set aside for future capital improvements & how much of our operating budget we fund by using reserves to plug any shortfall.

1: Capital improvements, by definition, are expenditures for things that have long-term use.  Generally, roads and sidewalks, sewer/water treatment plants, buildings renovation or field, first responder vehicles and certain equipment are all examples.  I believe funding for these long-term purposes should be funded by bond issuance.

• Long-term funding for long-term projects.  Today, some money in our operating budget is set aside as a form of savings to avoid issuing debt in the future.  Capital spending should be funded long-term, so those current budget funds can be used for other more immediate purposes.  
• In addition, only select capital ideas are being funded in the annual budget for future use.  That makes our funding planning somewhat inconsistent.  In effect, we are taxing our residents today, holding that money, so that in 10 years or some future point, we can use the money for a purpose.

2: The second item is the funding of our operating budget in part, by using current reserves to fill any gap in revenue.  This year, that amounts to $250k.  In prior years, it was more.

• So, in this case, we are pulling money from the reserves, but at the same time, we are taxing residents to put some money back into the reserve (above).  That is effectively just a wash, so I’m not clear why we do it.  
• I do believe we must aspire to be a fiscally healthy town with very healthy reserves so that no unexpected need becomes a challenge.  My concern with the current process is that, if our spending is more than our revenue, and we plug it by using reserves, what will we do when the reserves are depleted?  Left unmanaged, we will need to sharply cut spending or sharply increase taxes.  Neither is a good idea.  
• Slow and consistent/controlled management of our budget is the best path for Verona.

In terms of what to increase, the first thought is to work with Chief Kiernan and the police. I met with him a few weeks ago and we discussed how 2 or 3 additional offices would be deployed.

• We have an efficient scheduling for our police in place today, but we are short-staffed when officers are on vacation time, illness, injured, etc.  Being short-staffed with first-responders isn’t ideal.
• Second, these additional officers could be deployed on high traffic congestion days and times to keep our main thoroughfares moving, clear and most of all, safe.  An officer at Sampson Drive at dismissal time at the high school is desperately needed at that intersection when some 150+ new drivers exit our campus there.  Bloomfield Ave at Grove, Lakeside, and Pompton are choke points.  
• Unless we clear these roads, drivers will avoid them and that puts more traffic onto our local streets.  A few additional officers can be deployed to ticket speeding on those local streets.  That will slow down drivers and generate some revenue in fines for our town.  
• Lastly, these additional officers will give Chief Kiernan some capacity to have our officers participate in County Task Force exercises.  In addition to the experiences our officers will gain, the County will reimburse the cost of the officers for those assignments – which will subsidize the cost in our budget and taxpayers.

There’s always something to consider in any budget and our town needs do evolve, over time.  Sensible planning and most importantly, engaging our department heads and staff in that planning is the way forward.