The Town’s 2025 audit, now published, shows where reserves and borrowing went. Residents should understand these numbers before the Town Board adopts the 2027 budget.

Reserves are falling. The 2025 budget planned to draw $2.4 million from reserves. Spending came in under budget, which deserves credit, but the plan still depended on those reserves.

Excluding the capital projects fund, fund balances fell $914,485 in one year, from $5.16 million to $4.25 million. The Highway Fund dropped 28 percent. General Fund B, which carries most of the General Fund’s public safety costs, dropped 42 percent.

Borrowing is climbing. Total debt rose 63 percent in 2025, to $30.2 million. Short-term notes more than doubled, to $21.2 million. The capital projects fund ended the year with a $12.7 million deficit, which the audit says long-term financing will eliminate.

Debt payments are growing. In 2025 the Town spent $1,570,143 on debt: $1,007,500 in principal and $562,643 in interest. The Highway Fund paid $770,025 of that, about 23 percent of its spending. The proposed 2027 budget lists $2,217,055 for debt service, compared with $778,246 in the 2023 budget.

Three points need public answers before the Board votes.

1. The Town has leaned on short-term borrowing for years. Residents deserve a clear plan to pay it off.

2. The Town has borrowed money well ahead of spending it, and taxpayers are paying interest the whole time.

3. Reserves that should protect taxpayers are being spent while debt climbs. Residents deserve a plan that stops that trend.

The Board should publish a full accounting of every note and bond and explain how the Town intends to repay them. The 2027 budget should show how reserves will be rebuilt, not drawn down. The hotel coming online cannot be the parachute for a bad plan.

Part of the money went to lenders, and that money cannot pay for roads or police. The full answer should come before the budget is final.