The Littleton Board of Commissioners held two public hearings Monday, one on its proposed FY 2011 budget and another to change wording in its zoning ordinance to reflect a change in its fee schedule. Mayor Betty Willis said of the 5 percent decrease from last year's budget that cuts had to be made and the board had worked and struggled to find areas to make that possible and while it was regrettable, property taxes had to increase in order for the budget to be balanced.

"We've worked very hard on this budget," Willis said. "Everything had to be cut and as bad as we hated it, we had no choice. And it couldn't be done without an increase in taxes."

The tax rate was increased from .61 per $100 of property to .65 per $100 of property value.
One citizen spoke out during the budget public hearing. Larry West who contracts with the town and maintains the town cemetery was opposed to a decrease in funding of the cemetery maintenance. The cemetery allocation was reduced from a little more than $14,000 during 2009 to $10,200 for the coming year.

West said the town mistakenly assumed that maintenance included grass cutting only. "It's consists of more than that," he said.
Willis told the half dozen citizens present at the budget public hearing that working out the town's budget had been a very painful experience for her. "This is the hardest thing I have ever done," Willis contended. "We are all in this together. We have to make cuts today so that we can maybe make things better tomorrow."

Commissioner Heidi Hogan said cuts had been made everywhere. She told West and the others that the $75 a month that was usually allocated to clean the library had been cut and that the commissioners had all agreed to do the cleaning themselves. "The board is going to go once a month and clean," Hogan said.
Cemetery Commissioner Patrick MacRae assured West he would get together with him and they would see what could be worked out considering the decrease.

West said he was willing to work with the town in any way possible. "However," he said, "I run a business. I have to make a little money, too. I have to pay a light bill, too."
Littleton's FY 2011 budget is $576,806 down $31,381 from FY 2010 of $608,187.
"And to make it all work, we had to raise taxes," Willis said. "There was no way we could've gotten that budget to work without a tax increase. Taxes haven't been raised in years, and to make everything work, we hated to do it, but we had to increase taxes."
"We made cuts on everything," Willis said. "We cut the police department, supplies, just about everything. This board worked long hours to come up with this budget. We hated to make the cuts we did, and we hated the tax increase, but we had no choice if we were going to make it work."
The board voted 5-0 to approve the budget.
The second public hearing was to change the wording in the zoning ordinance. Currently the ordinance reads, "...A fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) shall be paid to the town for each application, for administrative review, for a variance or special or conditional use permit not initiated by an officer or agency of the town..." The change would replace the words "...of twenty-five dollars..." with the words "...set by the Board of Commissioners and available in the Clerk's Office..."
The change would affect the fees that pertain to a request for a zoning change or variance. The schedule of fees was increased to bring them in accordance with other towns in the immediate area.
No one spoke for or against the change during the public hearing. The board voted to pass the measure and change the wording and fees. The fees will be available upon request in Town Hall.

Reprinted with permission from the Lake Gaston Gazette-Observer