Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

I'm beginning to regain control of my life - catching up on lots of stuff I had to ignore while we were campaigning. When I stopped in at Town Hall yesterday and someone said happily, "Look, she's not dead," I knew I'd been away too long.

During that time we passed a very good budget. I clung firmly to my commitment not to raise the tax rate. There's always a lot of talk (really, there is!) about the tax levy vs. the tax rate. There's an feeling out there that elected officials aren't being entirely forthright when they we say that taxes aren't going up when what we mean is that the tax rate didn't go up. In fact, usually when the tax rate is constant, the tax levy (total tax revenue) goes up because total property assessment has gone up.

And in fact that's true again in Dryden this year. The tax rate is staying the same. The tax levy is increasing by $18,589 or nearly 2% because total assessments increased $12,891,737 - the same 2%. But here's the good news. The Building department reports that permits were issued in 2006 for construction totalling $13,421,791. So, apparently the increase in assessments is entirely due to new construction.

So, I may have gotten your attention with the $ sign. But if you read all the way through and you'd like to hear more about the budget, please comment or contact me. I'll be glad to write more here.