Selectmen cut $1.43M from department budget requests
Recommended budget still $460,000 over last year 

GOFFSTOWN – After weeks of deliberations on next year’s requested operating budget, the Board of Selectmen settled on a recommended town operating budget of $18.7M for 2008. 

The budget, which selectmen completed at their last meeting on Nov. 5^th, includes, unlike previous years, about $1.5M for the Road Plan.  Voters directed that future Road Plan monies be included in the default operating budgets beginning next year when they approved Article 16 at the 2007 Town Vote.

The net result of selectmen’s deliberations is an overall increase of $460,000 over last year’s $16.8M operating budget.

The selectmen’s recommended budget will now go before the Budget Committee, where members will review it and make their own recommendations before sending it back to selectmen for final approval.

Overall, town department heads had collectively requested an increase of nearly $2M over 2007’s operating budget.  Some of the requests that were cut by selectmen included $185,000 by the Police Department, $50,000 from the Town Administration Department’s overall request for an additional $144,000, and nearly $1M in Capital Improvement Projects.