Budget Guidelines
Town Council Debates How to Get Items Into Watertown’s Annual Budget
|
Each year the Town Council creates budget guidelines and Councilors can present their proposals for the budget during hearings of the Budget and Fiscal Oversight Committee. However, why some proposals make it and some do not is not always clear.
In the presentation at last week’s Town Council meeting, Councilor Vincent Piccirilli said the Budget and Fiscal Oversight subcommittee does not decide whether each request is a good idea or not but rather acts as an editor to take input from Town Councilors and “synthesize it into a concise, actionable document for the Manager.” (Click here to see the budget guidelines report). “The Committee may decide to not include a request because it requires policy direction from the Council before the Manager can include it in the operating budget; because it is too ambiguous to be included in the operating budget; because it is part of the Capital Improvement Program and not the operating budget; because it is within the authority of another elected body who has not weighed in it; or because it overlaps with other existing goals or requests,” Piccirilli was quoted as saying in the committee report. Councilor Tony Palomba said that he has been frustrated with his efforts to get items into the budget.