Auburn budget woes for next year?

It looks like we'll have a 400K+ shortfall next year if things pan out like projections.

One thing that jumps out is 13% increase in health care payments for town employees (current and past).

Contributing to the anticipated increase in spending are 2.5 percent raises for town employees; a 13.26 percent increase in the town’s share of the health premiums for 621 current and retired town employees; interest for a loan needed to pay for capital or major equipment purchases; and higher fuel costs.

This is something that we have to pay attention to going forward, particularly when negotiating new contracts. Everyone wants a good deal but they've been giving away the farm on this one. Unless and until these costs come under control the town cannot afford to continue to foot the bill on rising premiums.

Also of note - the cost of the library appears to be closer to $16M according to the Auburn News, mostly because the process took so long. This happened with the high school also. It's a situation where the longer you put some of this off, the more it will cost. If the town wants to do this project they need to act on it. Otherwise, it should be downsized to something more affordable before it comes in like another school buildings project. For instance, do we know about the potential asbestos in the old structure like the high school? On the other side of it, if we really do need it let's get it done and going so things don't balloon out of control.

On the positive side, our Rep Paul Frost is trying to get us about $1M from the stabilization fund for next year. If that happens all of this is moot. OTOH, other things can change in budgets (for instance receipts and state aid go up and down) so stay tuned and watch your wallets!

Buying Christmas toys made in America

Boston.com has an article on which toys to buy made here in the good ole US of A.

It's something to think about with all the Communist Chinese lead painted toys popping up these days. I know one of the first items on my list is a lead paint test kit from Home Depot. Figure I'll test em right on the shelf before I plop down hard earned Benjies for some Commy made imported lead toy ;). I plan to bring up the subject of buying toys from USA to the Mall and Toys R Us too. Safety is of tantamount importance when buying toys so choosing a trusted source country for manufacture is important.

Here's a few companies mentioned:

American Plastic Toys
Fat Brain Toys
Kazoo Toys
Nick and Zoe toys
Isis Maternity

A couple more:

Nice maple wooden block set
Train table from Step 2, who have a selection of made in USA toys.
Inside plastic Doorway playhouse again from Step 2.

Finally, if you like European made toys, the Gift Chalet has many products from Scandinavia and they're right here in town.

A few other pointers for lead and toy safety from Consumer reports - 5 things for avoiding lead contamination

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2007/08/five-things-par.html

Taxes going down ... just not here

Article in the Globe claims the average household tax bill in Boston is going down this year thanks to a hot commercial property market. It demonstrates the value of a healthy commercial tax base.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/04/08_property_taxes_drop_in_hub/

The decreases are in sharp contrast to annual property tax increases in recent years. Between 2002 and 2007, the bill for the average single-family house skyrocketed 78 percent, or $1,351.

"I think it's great news. We've got a lot of people who are just getting killed by taxes," said Dr. Francisco Trilla, medical director at Atreva Health Care in Jamaica Plain, which serves many elderly city residents and young families. "You've really got to look at the most vulnerable populations and those are the people who are really going to benefit from this."

The good fortune of Boston homeowners is not being played out across the state, however. The vast majority of cities and towns that have set their tax rates so far are imposing increases to keep local services functioning.

State Department of Revenue records show that property tax bills for single-family homes are increasing in 48 of 54 cities and towns for which 2008 tax rates are set. Those bills are going up an average of $193.

The difference in Boston is that commercial development continues to boom. That is creating a deep well of new tax dollars that is coming to the aid of residential property owners. Even though residential property values are falling, city officials do not need to increase residential tax rates.

Thanks

I'm thankful for the Mall
Where I buy my gifts
And also Colony liquors where your spirits get a lift
I'm thankful for the grocery stores
that Oxford doesn't have
And all the stores and restaurants
all the fast food you can grab
I'm thankful for Berlin St
which got paved so smooth last year
Now if only they'd do drainage
we'd really have something to cheer.
I'm thankful that new developments
take so long to do
so greedy builders clearing land
might have their plans fall through
I'm thankful for our high school
which looks so new and bright
Now let's work on math scores
so kids will learn things right
I'm thankful that our residents
have hope for better days
and all the folks I speak with
have ideas small and great.
Now if only we could make
the voters thankful too
and get them to participate
when they have something better to do
Then we'd improve our town tommorrow
and better than today
because our town we live in
deserves better in every way.

The Auburn Police, brought to you by Walmart

Interesting idea to save money - advertise on police cars. In a town like Auburn this could be worth quite a bit (considering the traffic). They're doing this in Littleton and other towns are considering it too.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/14/ad_watch_police_sponsors_put_littleton_cruiser_on_the_road/

Interesting little windmill

It blends in pretty well is around $5K and generates about 1KW.

http://www.news.com/2300-13838_3-6218577-4.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

MRSA

You might have seen the somewhat alarming report on 60 Minutes last Sunday on the rampant rise of an almost incurable bacteria called MRSA. It's also been referred to as a Staph infection with the strain being resistant to all antibiotics (except the antibiotic of last resort, which they want to avoid because then it will truly become incurable).

Here's the state website on the topic of MRSA and school athletics.

There have been cases recently also here in Massachusetts where MRSA has been reported in several schools including Wrentham, Adams, Dartmouth, Salem and Winthrop according to this article.

Here's a pamphlet from the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths on the subject of MRSA prevention for parents and educators.

The other trend we have to be concerned about is the overuse of antibiotics in treating what turns out to be viruses. This is kind of a natural expected outcome as the bacteria strains become more and more resistant over time. Some have brought up the possibility that use of antibiotics in the food chain (beef and chicken) could also be behind this trend.

Our school department and Board of Health has no position published on this topic at this time but I'd like to see this taken up by the district/town before any cases show up.