{"id":110356,"date":"2015-08-11T18:29:55","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T00:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/town-starts-2016-budget-planning\/"},"modified":"2015-08-11T18:29:55","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T00:29:55","slug":"town-starts-2016-budget-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/town-starts-2016-budget-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Town starts 2016 budget planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cox\"
Cox<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The town is in the planning stage for the 2016 operating budget, and members of the Board of Trustees and department heads met on Aug. 5 to discuss goals and objectives for the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The base budget so far is projecting $1.06 million in expenses and $1.097 million in revenues.<\/p>\n

Sales taxes, the largest source of revenue for the town, are expected to be fairly consistent with last year, but officials won\u2019t have a completely accurate picture until October, said Town Clerk Heather Alvarez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re looking pretty good this year. We\u2019re projecting some slight increases, but are expecting to be pretty much the same as we were last year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Each department\u2019s base budget for 2016 is also fairly consistent with previous year\u2019s, and some departments see slight budgetary decreases.<\/p>\n

Notable expenses proposed in the total 2016 base budget include a 3 percent pay increase for town employees (2 percent cost of living and 1 percent merit), a 5 percent increase in health insurance costs, a 5 percent increase in electricity costs, and the hiring of an additional full-time water and wastewater treatment operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three percent increase for employees takes into account a cost of living increase. Electricity costs are going up, and we\u2019re again seeing our health insurance increase as we have more employees with family coverage,\u201d said Town Administrator Andrea Phillips.<\/p>\n

At the Aug. 5 meeting, department heads also made presentations to the board on requests that were not included in the base budget that they would like to see funded.<\/p>\n

Marshal John Cox is requesting that the town hire an additional deputy to provide his two-deputy department scheduling relief and better coverage for the town.<\/p>\n

To fund the new deputy \u2013 a position that is projected to cost between $81,570 the first year for training and uniform expenses and $71,570 recurring annually \u2013 Cox is suggesting the town raise the marijuana transaction fee from $2 to $6.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fee now is $2. I say raise it to six bucks. Driving by those marijuana shops, I see an awful lot of out-of-state plates. If someone is coming out-of-state to buy pot, they\u2019re not going to know the difference between being charged $52 or $56. That could fund an officer right there,\u201d said Cox.<\/p>\n

The reason behind the request is an increase number of calls for service, he said.<\/p>\n

He cited 417 calls for service in 2012, 447 in 2013, 675 in 2014, and 425 calls in the first six months of 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a lot of people with lengthy criminal histories that are taking up a lot of our time,\u201d said Cox, noting that many people he and his deputies are encountering are from out of town. He also says there is a correlation between the uptick in service calls to the availability of marijuana within town limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard that because there\u2019s a cheap place to stay, and since some don\u2019t have driver\u2019s licenses, they can walk to the marijuana shops,\u201d said Cox. \u201cI\u2019m against marijuana because it eats up the mind. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the worst thing in the world, but it is causing us problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other notable departmental requests leasing a new patrol vehicle at $17,330 annually from the Mancos Marshal\u2019s office; leasing a used half-ton truck for the Parks and Recreation department, which currently has a 28-year-old truck; buying a 4-wheeler and trailer\/plow for the Parks and Recreation department; and adding a 6-inch layer of road base to Riverside and Bauer avenues.<\/p>\n

The proposed budget is slated to go to trustees for introduction by Oct. 15. Further discussions and workshops will be held throughout October and November after the third-quarter financial review.<\/p>\n

The final budget must be adopted by Dec. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cox requests third marshal; other offices seek vehicles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110356"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}