Christiansburg balances its budget
By Steve Huppert
Christiansburg Town Council recently approved the 2012-13 budget. I am pleased to say it was not as exciting as the Montgomery County budget. But budgets of any town, city, county or state are challenging.
In almost all levels of government, income is down — or at best flat — while expenses continue to rise. No matter what amount of revenue communities are receiving, services still need to be funded. Services include police, sewage, water, fire and rescue, recreation, health insurance and street maintenance, which includes snow removal.
Continue reading Christiansburg Town Councilman Steve Huppert’s column.
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I appreciate Councilman Huppert continuing to take the time to communicate with our community.
I wish; however, more details were provided -whether via the town’s upgraded web site and social media sources, these community dialogs, or local news sources.
As an example: why do water and sewer fees continue to increase? Just because the regional authority increases fees does not explain how that utility is managed or what the root cause for higher costs are.
Other examples could be explaining more about capital improvements now being funded, how prioritized.
It would also be interesting to learn more about how Christiansburg leaders advance the expansion of its overall tax base – whether regional or staff projects that support retention of existing business and recruiting new ones – looking beyond modest increases from residential real estate development or annual hikes to lodging and meals taxes.
Any budget is tough to develop, fund and maintain. It appears Christiansburg leaders have worked diligently to be good stewards of public funds.
Comment by TL — June 24, 2012 @ 9:49 pm
The 8 cent sales tax om food hurts the poor and retired citizens.
Comment by granthallock — June 28, 2012 @ 6:28 am