BRASELTON — The 2010 budget for Braselton shows decreases in almost every department as the town prepares for smaller revenue collections. But an upcoming election in November means an increase in that budget.
The election budget increased to $7,000 from last year’s $750 in preparation for the November election in Braselton. The mayor’s seat, along with the District 2 and District 4 seats, will be up for election this year.
“The highest expense in an election is printing the ballots,” Town Manager Jennifer Dees explained. “We have almost 3,900 registered voters in Braselton and we have to print an absentee ballot and regular ballot for each registered voter.”
In the police budget, the amount allocated for the chief of police and other department employee salaries went up $1,000 and $4,000, respectively, but these don’t amount to pay raises for the employees, Dees said.
“Nobody’s getting a pay raise — we have to budget based on accrued time for the employees,” she said.
The department had decreases in other areas such as gas for department vehicles, which dropped by $5,000 from the $75,000 allocated in the last fiscal year. This decrease can be attributed to lower gas prices and Braselton’s discussions with Gwinnett County about buying gas together for some added savings.
“They would buy it at a wholesale rate and then pass those savings on to us,” Dees explained.
While these departments saw some increased allocations, other departments saw more significant budget reductions and even some job cuts. Overall, the budget decreased by about $373,000 compared to the $2.98 million budget for 2009.
In general fund expenses, the planning and development department saw the biggest decrease, with a proposed budget of $382,349 for 2010 compared to 2009’s $620,816 budget.
Three full-time positions will be cut from the planning and development department’s six-member staff to offset the predicted decreases in revenue from permitting and other regulatory fees in 2010, Dees said. One of the three positions will be moved to another department, she added.
The water and sewer fund’s budget of $4.8 million encompasses a similarly substantial reduction: an almost $2 million decrease from 2009’s $6.7 million budget.
Tap fees account for the largest decrease in water and sewer fund revenues, Dees said. For 2009, the town brought in $3 million in tap fees. For 2010, it expects to bring in half of that amount.
“We have a number of developments that have pre-purchased their sewer tap fees and the associated water tap fees,” she said.
“We hope those projects will develop, but we don’t anticipate anyone doing a large scale project in 2010 at this point that would require reserve sewer capacity.”
Budgeting for uncertain revenues, Dees said, will not help the town. “We don’t want to anticipate receiving revenues that we can’t depend on. We would rather set our expenses and our revenues as low as we think they’ll go.”
Cutting spending, she said, should help offset the reduction in revenues.
Due to less construction, the town has not had to pay as much for locates, which involves finding where utilities are located before construction begins on a building. In the wastewater department, the town expects to pay $30,000 in locates for 2010 instead of the $62,500 spent in 2009. In the water department, locate expenses have been reduced from $62,500 to $20,000.
Park expenses are also expected to drop, thanks to the Braselton Visitors Bureau Authority, which has offered to take over maintenance for both the downtown park and RiverWalk. This will result in a $6,000 reduction in maintenance for the downtown park and a $3,000 reduction for the RiverWalk.
The Braselton Town Council voted unanimously to adopt its $2.62 million budget for 2010 at a called meeting June 18.