As board members from the town of Wilmington, we object to our colleague’s guest commentaries (“Indifference and Impatience in Wilmington,” parts 1 and 2) and want to correct the record.

The columns paint us as callous, having little regard for the taxpayers and not giving two board members what they wanted. This is flat out false. The columns also call out people by name or by title. For elected officials, that can be expected. For employees, that is unfair when everyone either knows the name or can easily find out.

As for the budget, the procedure is set by law, and we apologize for the outline that follows.

After hearing from departments, a budget officer prepares a tentative budget. A budget officer checks changes in retirement mandates; reviews liability, casualty, workers compensation and health insurance premiums; adds debt payments; and factors in what sort of changes each department faces with equipment maintenance and repairs, increased utilities, gasoline, chemicals for the water plant, etc. These numbers always go up, never down. The question is: will the expenses be greater than the 2% tax cap (based on some formulae only a bureaucrat could think up)?

With this data, the Wilmington budget officer prepared a tentative budget for 2025 with an estimated tax increase of 10%. The board reviewed these numbers and reduced expenditures to arrive at a preliminary budget with an estimated tax increase of 6%. These changes came about after board discussion in an open meeting. We cut budget line items probably best left in, but there it is. If a board cannot agree on a final budget, the preliminary budget becomes the final budget.

A public hearing was held, and the board worked, again by discussion and compromise, to increase revenues by recognizing more bed tax, increasing water rates (kept effectively flat for 20 years) and increasing fees for various permits (including short-term rentals). Fees are a bit of guess; bed tax is also tricky because that money is for “community enhancement,” not for bills that are the ordinary expenses of any town.

After this work, three of us voted for the final budget that had an anticipated 3% increase in tax. Two members opposed the final budget and got to vote no. The final budget then was filed a few days later.

That’s it in a nutshell. Budgets are best guesses and promises to levy only that amount. If some new expense comes up, and if it can be paid for, the board will amend the budget by resolution made in a public meeting. Wilmington has long sailed close to the wind on its budgets and unanticipated expenses can be challenging.

Finally, our colleague often gets to complain about us in these pages — this isn’t Watergate. Our meetings are open to public and broadcast online. And we are not indifferent to the taxpayer — we have been paying taxes in Wilmington for decades.

Sincerely,

Favor J. Smith

Supervisor

Darin Forbes

Councilperson

Tina Terry-Preston

Councilperson