Many Manheim Township residents are "concerned" about the size of the community's deficit, new township Commissioner Dave Heck said.
And the commissioners, the township's decision-making board, need "to start immediately" to look for ways to chop that $3.2 million deficit way down, Heck said.
The other commissioners agreed, voting this week to take the unusual step of reopening their township's already approved 2012 budget.
Hoping to find ways to reduce that deficit, the five-member board voted Monday to take a new look at the 2012 spending plan.
They also announced they will hold a special meeting on the budget on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
The goal is to look for ways to cut into the deficit now "rather than pushing it off and waiting until next year's budget," Heck said.
The township commissioners in December approved a $20 million budget for the new year that called for no tax increase.
But the budget also called for using more than $3 million in reserve funds to balance the figures.
Heck and fellow new Commissioner Al Kling were critical of township finances when they ran for office last year, and they campaigned on a pledge to reduce spending.
Kling said Monday that he feels the current board, which includes veterans Rick Casselbury, J. Michael Flanagan and Jim Martin, "can make a better effort than we made in the fall" to curtail expenses and cut the deficit.
Just be careful when you reopen the spending plan that pays for all municipal services, Martin, along with a township resident at Monday's meeting, warned the new commissioners.
If you cut services just to say you're saving money, "all you've done is created a mess," resident Larry Pulkrabek said.
"If you don't fix a road this year, you better fix it next year," he said, warning the commissioners not to be "entranced by the idea of a certain percentage" of a cut, "and then leave it to someone else to solve."
Before becoming a commissioner, Martin was the township's manager for a quarter-century.
He cautioned, "You can save $750,000 this year, but what about next year? If you don't take care of a problem (like a road or a bridge) this year, you might just make it worse" by not doing anything.
He said he doesn't have a problem with looking at the spending plan, but is worried that "some minds are already made up" that they're going to cut without truly looking at the consequences.
Roy Baldwin, a former township commissioner and state representative, urged the board to simply not approve certain long-range capital budget projects, rather than go through the cost of advertising the reopened budget, if it wants to save money for 2012.
While it's unusual for a community to reopen an approved budget, it is allowed by state code as long as any revisions are completed by Feb. 15, Heck said.
"Whatever we save today makes it easier for each future year," Heck added.
Former commissioners Carol Simpson and Larry Downing, who left office at the end of 2011, were on the board when the 2012 budget was approved.
It's not known what areas the commissioners will focus on as they look to make cuts, but Flanagan is worried that it's going to be farmland preservation, a subject that township residents have cited as extremely important to them.
"I hope that our new commissioners have some creative ideas for the budget," Flanagan said.
"My concern is that this is nothing more than something to gut our efforts to preserve the best farmland in our township."
Monday's meeting will be at the township offices, 1840 Municipal Drive.