East Hampton residents want cut funds restored

East Hampton's new town hall was filled Thursday night with residents asking the town board to restore cuts to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson's proposed 2011 budget, which slashes spending by millions and eliminates about 10 percent of the workforce in the wake of a $30 million debt.

While many residents praised the board for cutting next year's tax rate by 17.7 percent, far higher than any other Long Island town, many went on to ask officials to restore to the budget $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 for a program that was being cut.

The $30 million debt was incurred because of mismanagement by the previous administration, according to state audits.

Parents argued for after-school programs, and advocates for the elderly argued for building up the town's human resources agency, which lost much of its staff and is reducing many of its services. Several commercial fishermen from Montauk asked the board to put back $25,000 for a lobbyist - some said the word should just be "representative" - who attends conferences up and down the Atlantic coast to discuss quotas and other regulations that impact the New York fishing industry.

Several town board members indicated they were sympathetic with some of the requests, but Wilkinson said that it was vital to slash town spending.

"This town is grossly overspending," he said. "I have said all along I will take $8 to $10 million out of the budget. We're living at a level we should not be living at."

He said East Hampton's proposed $63.8 million budget for 2011 was nearly equal to neighboring Southampton's proposed $79.8 million budget "and they have three times the population."