Budget increase not to affect taxes: council

By Megan Heintz
SPARTA — A shortage of funds for snow removal has led to an increase in the 2015 temporary budget.

Due to the numerous snowstorms this season, Sparta Township Mayor Jerry Murphy and the other council members have agreed to increase the snow removal budget by $250,000.

Snow removal salaries and wages would be allotted $50,000 and its other expenses would account for the remaining $200,000, according to the temporary budget.

“Basically a temporary budget leads into the annual budget. The taxes won’t go up at all because of that. We just have to take that into consideration when we’re working on the final budget, ” said Sparta Township Chief Financial Officer Sam Rome.

The temporary budget is used as an emergency fund and does not mean that all that is set aside will be utilized.

“It’s a mechanism so that we have some appropriations to use for the first three months of the year,” Rome said.

The final budget is approved in April.

Rome also said that they have a snow reserve through the state, that assists with funding.

“The state allows us to take any unused proceeds against the snow budget and put them into a trust account so that when we have a really good year with few snow storms, we can take that money, set it aside into a trust fund, and then have it to bank against when we have really bad years like this one,” he said.

The council is also now allowed to pass legislation or directives to use for abnormal weather events such as hurricane cleanup and brush removal.

In the past, Rome said that it was much more difficult to come up with the extra funding, which is why having a temporary budget that doesn’t affect Sparta residents’ taxes is so important.

“It works out really well and it makes sense. You can’t predict what the weather is going to do, and this at least allows us to have a bank set aside to get us through the tough spots,” Rome said.