If everything goes as planned over the next six months, the Municipal Council hopes that by trimming Mayor Costello’s proposed budget by more than $300,000, it will have saved homeowners about $58.90 on next years tax bill.

Last month Costello proposed a $38.8 million budget, which the council reduced by $312,297 in general government spending. It also reduced water and sewer spending by more than $100,000. bringing the total cuts to $428,715.20. In the end, the council approved a $38.5 million budget that will cover all town spending over the next year.

Councilor At Large Tom Iacobucci said he is satisfied with the way the final budget has shaped up, despite the fact that the Audits and Appropriations Committee had originally sought to cut more than $600,000 from Costello’s plan.

" I would have liked to have seen some of the other cuts that we had proposed be sustained by the full council, but I think all in all I’m very pleased, "Iacobucci said. " It looks like we will have saved the tax payers about a 31 cent increase. "

Iacobucci said the town won’t have a true sense of the budget’s impact on taxpayers until December when the tax rate is set.

Some councilors have already heard grumblings of discontent from Costello’s office in regards to some of the budget cuts, specifically an appropriation of $50,000 for the law budget for fiscal 2002, which Costello says is about half of what the town will need and $60,000 less that what he asked for. Council President Al B. Sears said he believes $50,000 should be more than enough for the upcoming year.

" My feeling is that they wanted to send a message that (the mayor) really should be going out to bid with this, " Sears said. " Most of (the council) felt that the town is spending all kinds of money on legal and we’re spending more than we should. "

Sears added that the budget is not completely inflexible and it has been made clear that if additional funds are needed in the law budget, changes could potentially be made upon request.

" We’ve done supplemental appropriations previously and there should be some free cash coming in, " Sears said. " I don’t think we’re trying to stymie the town legally. I just think that we’re trying to come up with some good conservative spending. "

The complete budget approved by the Municipal Council can be found online at http://www.amesburyissues.org/FY2002.