The Watertown City Council is exploring fiscal solutions for next year amid a projected budget deficit of $7.5 million.
In this year’s budget, a proposed tax rate increase of 19% was cut to a roughly 7% increase.
Council Member Robert Kimball is warning the council must be proactive about the next fiscal year's budget. He said the recently passed final budget puts the city’s property tax rate at $9.41 per $1,000 of assessed value. That’s up 18% from the property tax rate ten years ago.
“18% sounds like a lot, except that the inflation rate during that decade was 32.7%," Kimball said. "So what cost us a dollar in 2014, 2015 costs $1.33 now, but we're only willing to pay $1.18. And that's a problem. So if the city wishes to maintain what we have, taxes must increase significantly, even painfully. But we also need to look for cuts.”
Some potential cuts Kimball suggested that each could save $1 million including reducing the fire department staff by 10%, reducing the police force by 10%, or closing the golf course, arena, and one more pool.
“I'm not advocating any of those three things I mentioned," Kimball said. "I'm not anti-firefighter. I'm not anti-police. I'm not anti-pools and arenas. But something's got to give, and I can't see a way out of this without some significant rise in the property tax rate.”
Mayor Sarah Compo Pierce agreed that it's good to be proactive about the next fiscal year.
“Hopefully, we can come up with some solutions that will help address that problem," Compo Pierce said. "I don't think we're going to entirely solve it. But I would hope that given some attention this far in the future, start thinking about next year, start thinking about the year after that, we can come up with some ideas that will make things easier in the years ahead.”
