STONE HARBOR – An oversight in the 2020 budget led to a 2021 budget process in which the borough raised the local tax rate by more than 8%. This led to calls on Stone Harbor Borough Council for improvements in the budget process.
Borough Administrator Robert Smith and Chief Financial Officer James Craft were tasked with returning to council with a proposed process. They unveiled their recommendation Sept. 7, which amounts to a more structured schedule, with numerous points at which the council would be informed of the evolving budget.
Craft presented a schedule that would begin with department worksheets in early September. The department process would be governed by a zero-based budgeting context, which assumes no increase over the previous years unless identified and justified.
The process dictates that capital spending worksheets would be distributed in November. Revenues would be a focus of attention in December after most of the current year’s revenues are known.
January would be the point of a review of all capital projects and the fine-tuning of revenue expectations. An initial budget document would be produced by February for council review and subsequent instruction. The schedule calls for budget adoption by mid-March.
Council members must decide if the presentation of a more detailed schedule satisfies the concerns many of them raised about the process in spring.
