Alna Selectmen are peeling back the many layers of the local government “onion” to figure out how to make the town's finances easier for themselves and future selectmen to explain to taxpayers.

Tracking a town's spending, income sources and money being saved up for big-ticket items can be complex.

For example, there can be accounting changes like a stipend being moved from one part of the budget to another, or bus drivers' pay being eliminated when the town joins a regional school unit.

Selectmen continued their work November 1, with plans to make a graph to share the information with residents.

But as Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve pointed out, first the board has to determine the source of information it will use when comparing multiple years' figures. Otherwise, he said, “if we present something, someone's going to get up … and say, 'Your whole analysis is wrong.'”

They talked about going by the budget approved at the annual town meeting. However, they said the budget wouldn't show, for example, that leftover money in the administration account was the reason fewer funds had to be raised for that account this year.

“As soon as you show a drop or a rise, you better know what happened,” Villeneuve said.

As they looked at the annual audit and other documents, Third Selectman David Reingardt said the town's accounting system could use some changes. For example, the fire department's reserve accounts for fire trucks and certain other equipment should be removed from the fire department budget and put elsewhere because they make the department's budget look “inflated,” Reingardt said.

First Selectman David Abbott wasn't sure residents would be interested in some of the accounting items the board was considering presenting. “I think people just want to see why our taxes are going up,” he said.

Alna's property tax rate climbed about seven percent this year, to $21.80 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The hike follows higher municipal and county costs and decreased surplus and state funds to offset them, selectmen have said.

The board plans to resume pouring over accounts November 15. The meeting at the town office starts at 6:30 p.m.

Susan Johns can be reached at 844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.