Upper Milford Supervisor Gives Colleagues Budget Homework

The Upper Milford Board of Supervisors left the board’s July 5 meeting with a homework assignment, compliments of Supervisor Robert Sentner.

Sentner is advocating that the board take a more proactive approach to the township’s budget process and wants to start looking at the 2013 budget now, rather than in the fall. Sentner also thinks the board should look at the budget from the perspective of what the township needs, rather than simply looking at what the township can afford.

“In the past we always just make it (the budget) fit,” Sentner said. “We need to look at where the township is with things like EIT (Earned Income Tax) and what we’re going to need for the coming year and for future year projects.

“A budget should be about what you need and then you whittle it down from there. We need to put money away for infrastructure stuff. Every year all we do is operational,” Sentner said.

Is there something that you think should be on the Upper Milford Board of Supervisors budget wish list?

For example, Sentner said he knows that the township’s public works department has a road plan and he thinks that the supervisors should at least consider factors like a certain road that will need to be replaced three years out in developing the 2013 budget.

Sentner also mentioned another one of his pet peeves – the sign in front of the that dates back to the building’s construction period and reads “Future Site of Upper Milford Township Municipal Center.”

Sentner has said publicly on more than one occasion that the Supervisors need to budget monies to take care of updating the sign, which he finds embarrassing.

In an effort at doing things differently this year, Sentner and the other supervisors left the July 5 meeting with a copy of the 2012 budget to scrutinize. “I would like each of us to take a look at this year’s budget and add to it what we would like to see,” Sentner said.

Once everyone has completed this “homework assignment” the board will begin its budget discussions and the "whittling down" process.