Town looking at 6 percent budget hike
Highway Superintendent and Public Works Commissioner Jay Card answered last minute questions from Town Board members Tuesday as they worked to solidify their 2015 budget.
Shelter Island taxpayers are likely to be looking at a 6 percent increase in spending based on budget modifications recommended by Town Board members in the past week.
But before that number is solidified, the board is waiting changes due on a number of increases and decreases they have recommended. They’ll review the revisions at a 4 p.m. meeting Friday, October 24.
That “gorilla” in the room, in Supervisor Jim Dougherty’s phrase — the Highway Department and Public Works budget — has been sharply pared down from the approximate 23.5 percent boost Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr. sought. It’s likely to be less than a 5 percent spending increase.
Mr. Card and Town Engineer John Cronin won’t be getting the approximately $400,000 per year they had sought to build a $1.2 million fund over a three-year period to tackle infrastructure projects. But more money is proposed to close other deficits in spending that have had Mr. Card juggling funds to pay for needed improvements.
Raises all around
Non-union town employees will generally receive a 2 percent pay hike, while Mr. Dougherty and the four board members will accept 1.5 percent increases. And after much talk about Mr. Card’s value and the importance of bringing his salary up to par with that earned by managers in surrounding towns, the board settled on a 2 percent raise for him.
He is currently earning $72,790 while his colleagues in neighboring towns are earning $90,000 to $103,500.
Councilman Paul Shepherd encouraged his colleagues to look at the managerial responsibilities Mr. Card has and to consider what anyone in that position should be paid. All agreed that Mr. Card has improved operations and morale, but when it came to dollars and cents, they were moved to the 2 percent figure.
A question of stewardship
Councilman Ed Brown and Mr. Dougherty came to an easy agreement to take $335,000 from the town’s general fund balance and apply it to the 2015 budget. The supervisor’s original proposal was to use $370,000 from the fund balance.
“People don’t want their taxes raised, but I think they want to feel that you’re being responsible stewards,” Councilwoman Chris Lewis said about the larger than expected budget.
“It’s a little bite now to make things healthy,” said Mr. Brown, generally the Town Board’s most outspoken budget hawk, about allocating more to certain budget lines than Mr. Dougherty had recommended. “It will smooth things for next year,” he said.
The supervisor started the second budget session Tuesday with a recommendation that his original budget request that started at a 3.5 percent hike go to 5.8 percent.
But the 5.8 percent “grew because you ignored some of my suggestions,” Mr. Dougherty told his colleagues.
The Town Board debated cutting the hours of certain services at the recycling center, ultimately deciding that wouldn’t work after hearing from Mr. Card.
“You have to actually be there to understand what’s happening” with the work flow, Mr. Card said.
“I don’t try to manage the department for him,” Councilman Paul Shepherd said in endorsing Mr. Card’s personnel needs.
With respect to road work, Mr. Card admitted he was “becoming a little bit of an alarmist” in terms of the trouble he sees looming. Because of financial cutbacks, he’s been unable to get Island roads on a 20-year repavement cycle that’s essential, he said. Instead, he warned, roads are on a 40- to 50-year cycle that’s courting trouble, .
With a $125,000 state grant, his department can improve many of the roads or spend most of the money on Winthrop Road, which is in terrible shape, Mr. Card reported.
“The public is looking to me to get the paving done,” he said.
“I hear from the public that the roads are in good shape and taxes are the thing to keep an eye on,” Mr. Dougherty said.
Mr. Card replied that he sees the cracks and potential places where roads can break down that Town Board members may not recognize.
Other allocations
More money will land in the Deer & Tick Committee budget with the hope that incentives can be provided to hunters to manage the herd.
Board members want to fund a part-time social worker, Jennifer Olsen, who currently works part-time for the Shelter Island School system. The original request was for $7,648 with Communities That Care paying another $2,000 to pay for Ms. Olsen to work 12 hours a month. Mr. Dougherty had allocated $5,000 that would have cut the hours to about nine per month. Mr. Brown asked that the full $7,648 be allocated by the town.
At Mr. Brown’s request, it appears that a $2,000 request for office and miscellaneous expenses at Taylor’s Island will remain intact. There had been talk about slicing that amount in half.
On Friday, the board will reconvene to review what they hope could be final numbers and then set a date for a public hearing.
The board has until November 20 to take final action on its budget.
