CHATHAM – Chatham Selectmen are grappling with issues relating to the town’s annual budget.
Officials have been reviewing capital expenses, potential revenue expansions, service levels, debt management, and inter-municipal agreements as part of an effort to keep the fiscal year 2019 budget in check.
According to the town’s Finance Director Alix Heilala, Chatham continues to offer one of the lowest tax rates in the commonwealth, which when coupled with robust growth, can make budget planning tricky.
“We always talk about the average tax bill which is about $4,470,” she said, “You can see that we’re slightly below the Cape average and well below the state average.”
Carefully avoiding specific figures Heilala and Town Manager Jill Goldsmith informed selectmen at a recent meeting that the operating budget will come in near $30 million, up nearly four percent from last year.
There are similar increases for both the town’s Monomoy Regional School District contribution ($9 million), and the Water Department ($2.9 Million).
“The tax rate could be much higher than it was because we left excess capacity of just over $2 million that we didn’t raise through the tax rates so that’s relief to the taxpayer.” Heilala said.
A major concern for the town moving forward will be debt service, according to Finance Committee Chairman Stephen Daniel, Chatham has the highest per capita debt level in all of Massachusetts. Payments alone account for 20 percent of the Chatham budget.
By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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