Mayor, council look for budget control

Berlin’s government wasted an hour Monday night retracing steps taken a couple of weeks ago by the Town Council to eliminate the large gap between revenue and expenses.

Rather than moving on to actual new or unfinished business Monday, council members found themselves having to return to ground they had already plowed so government could go into the new fiscal year without raising property taxes.

This action came about after Mayor Zack Tyndall and staff seemingly looked beyond the council’s previous cuts because they disagreed with them. It was felt those adjustments could not be made at this time and would hurt the town.

Whether the mayor as the head of local government has the authority to ignore the council’s intentions because he disagrees with it is debatable. But that’s what he did and the council’s consternation at being dismissed in this high-handed fashion was certainly justified. The mayor felt his job was to explain the ramifications even if it meant repeating himself.

In fact, it’s to the council’s credit the reaction was not more harsh, having done the job they were elected to do only to have it tossed aside by the mayor, who was not elected to substitute his judgment for theirs individually or collectively.

This applies regardless of the mayor’s reasoning for whatever actions he might take. In this instance, the financial assumptions he made in insisting on a tax increase could be correct, coming as they did from the town’s finance team, who has advised the council repeatedly that the town’s margins are uncomfortably thin and incremental tax hikes are needed.

The real issue, however, has nothing to do with the town’s fiscal management. This is simply a matter of the mayor attempting to invalidate the decisions. The council instead stood its ground … and will probably have to again.