The Town of Hampstead introduced its fiscal year 2021 budget during the Tuesday virtual meeting of the mayor and council, with Mayor Chris Nevin summarizing the town’s economic situation.
“Things were going along swimmingly in the economy," he said. "Then, as everybody knows, the virus happened.”
The result is that while expenses are known and fixed, revenue is a bit of a question mark.
“I would say that I am very comfortable where we are with property tax revenue. Income tax revenue is a total wild card and highway user revenue is impossible to determine right now,” Nevin said. “Nobody is commuting anywhere right now and I’m on the same tank of gas for eight weeks.”
But because the economy was doing well up until March, Nevin said, the town has been able to draft a budget that is just 1.3% smaller than the FY20 budget.
“What we’re proposing is that the general fund is basically balanced at $3,293,000,” Nevin said. “The water fund is also balanced at $1,423,000.”
It’s anticipated this will be enough to pay for some of the larger known expenses coming up in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1 and runs through June 30, 2021, according to Nevin, including two new SUVs for the Hampstead Police Department.
“Normally we do one a year, but we have a new officer that is on board and we have basically a car that was totaled and one that is being used for spare parts,” he said. “It’s time to bite the bullet and buy two in a year.”
Other expenses budgeted for FY21 include taking down the old water tower behind the fire department, for which there is $60,000 in the proposed budget, and then there are some costs currently projected for FY22 that Nevin suggested the town might wish to deal with sooner.
“There’s still some 1936 pipe that goes off of Main Street in various areas," Nevin said, a project $800,000 cost to the water system the town may wish to do in FY21 rather than waiting for the following year. “Obviously that new pipe will benefit the system for a very long period of time.”
At the same time, Nevin said, the proposed budget includes no increases to water fees, or tax rates for the people of Hampstead.
“There’s no planned increase in the property tax — that’s still set at 22 cents, on the low end of any other town in Carroll County," Nevin said. “The business personal property tax is still set at 55 cents, that is not going to increase either, and there’s no planned changes in the water rates for the second year in a row.”
The council voted unanimously to approve two related ordinances and one resolution which will authorize the levy of town taxes for FY21, maintain the existing tax rates and maintain the current water rates, respectively.
“We anticipate adopting these ordinances in our June meeting,” Nevin said. “We will have a public meeting before that and obviously you can get a copy of these budgets and the capital improvement plan from town hall. They will be posted online prior.”