MAGGIE VALLEY — With at least 40 people and four news organizations watching, the Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen declared they had finally reached a consensus on the little town’s budget Monday morning.

Unlike in past meetings, there was little reaction from the crowd as Mayor Ron DeSimone read off the $2.2 million budget’s bullet points — including a 3-cent tax cut and cuts to the police department’s vehicle fund and town employees' health care coverage for dependents.

Specifically, employees must now pitch in 10 percent for their dependents’ care (with Maggie footing the rest of the bill), and they will also not see a proposed 2-percent cost-of-living increase in their pay. Other changes, which amounted to about $400,000 in cuts, include the police department not replacing two of its ...