Leland had a serious budget fight two years ago when the tax rate jumped by 17%. After that public pushback, the town tried to be more transparent about the budget. That’s why there was a public forum last week where residents could ask specific questions — and they did, for several hours.
One speaker, for instance, focused on zero-based budgeting — which requires line-item level justification for all expenses — and asked the city to provide detailed explanations.
Finance Director Carly Hagg responded, “We don’t necessarily sit and justify why we need office supplies in writing, in formal documents. Everything that we have on the website is 10 times what other places are putting out, like we are putting out just an abundance of information on our website.”…