Town manager lays out budget options: TIF balances, salary adjustments and EMS scenarios

Town Manager Tim and finance staff presented the Town Council with budget scenarios that include proposed wage adjustments, the possible addition of EMS staffing, and use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds to help cover capital and operating costs.

Finance staff outlined two TIF accounts and their balances: approximately $1.45 million in the transit TIF (about $553,000 of that earmarked, leaving roughly $896,000 available) and about $2.02 million in the Pumpkin Town TIF (roughly $1.00 million earmarked, leaving about $968,000 available). Staff said the TIF seats could be used for some bond payments and eligible economic-development expenses; the group discussed a TIF rule that use must not exceed 15% of a TIF—s value and verified the town remains within that threshold.

Budget staff also summarized salary changes proposed for FY2026. The proposal applies a roughly 3% cost-of-living adjustment across most municipal staff, a 3.5% contractual adjustment for police union members, and targeted market-based wage adjustments for specific positions (for example, call firefighters, transfer-station supervisor and several clerk—s-office positions). The staff estimate for total salary-related increases across the budget was discussed in the range of roughly $300,000; the town manager said about $79,000 of that was discretionary without requiring charter changes.

Councilors discussed alternatives to lower the overall proposed increase. Staff offered scenarios showing the effect of restoring some or all previously proposed capital-improvement-program (CIP) cuts and of drawing down undesignated fund balance. Example scenarios presented: adding EMS and restoring CIP at various levels produced overall budget change estimates in the roughly 5.5% to 8.8% range depending on assumptions, and using $900,000 to $1,000,000 of undesignated funds lowered the percentage impact by roughly one point.

Councilors asked for clearer, public-facing explanations to help voters understand the budget. Councilors and the town manager discussed preparing simple visuals (pie charts, examples showing what a mill-rate change means for a representative home) and noted staff would post budget materials and bring refined scenarios to the next council meeting for further direction.

No formal votes were recorded at the workshop; the council asked staff for additional breakouts, documentation of market comparisons used for wage adjustments and clearer charts for the public hearing process.