Town looking at tentative 4.4 percent tax hike
The magic number is now 4.4 percent. That’s the tax increase Town Board members are looking at as of their last budget meeting Wednesday morning, with decisions yet to be made on some big ticket items.“We’re getting down to the homestretch,” Supervisor Jim Dougherty announced Wednesday afternoon at the start of the meeting when the board he was looking at a 5.9 percent tax hike.
But by the time the session ended, with cuts made by the board, and word of an expected $100,000 from New York State to offset the cost of the 4-poster units in the Deer & Tick budget, Mr. Dougherty could see the number dropping.
In what was a rare political interlude during the budget talks, the Democratic supervisor asked the four Republicans on the Town Board at the start of Tuesday’s session, “Just how much do you guys want to tax the people?”
That met with laughter, but as the board settled into talks Wednesday, politics went away and practicality ruled the day.
“I wish Mr. Cuomo could sit in that chair,” Councilwoman Chris Lewis said, pointing to an empty seat at the board table. She would want to ask the governor how he expects municipal boards to keep within his 2 percent tax cap when health insurance premiums alone are expected to escalate in 2016 by 4.5 percent.
HIGHWAY/PUBLIC WORKS
Despite Highway Superintendent and Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr. making the case at previous meetings to purchase at least one and hpefully two new trucks in 2016, the board decided Wednesday not to budget any money for truck replacement.
On the other hand, they agreed with Councilman Ed Brown’s suggestion to revisit the issue at the end of the first quarter of 2016, by which time they will have a clear idea of what the winter of 2015-16 has cost.
A mild winter, where little money is needed for snow plowing, could mean the leasing of one to two trucks, they agreed.
Mr. Card wants two new trucks to be leased in 2016, two more in 2017 and a fifth in 2017. Then he would be able to put the vehicles on a regular replacement schedule.
The Board is also staying with a $50,000 allotment for road work, knowing that about $20,000 of that will be eaten up sealing road cracks, leaving $30,000 for repaving.
Mr. Card was hoping to see about $100,000 of $600,000 needed to repave roads that are well past their useful life. That doesn’t speak to some roads that are so far gone that major expenses would have to be incurred to “reclaim” them.
While there was some discussion of bonding, board members ultimately agreed that’s something they don’t want to do, even though the town has little debt.
Borrowing should be for capital projects, not road maintenance, Mr. Dougherty said.
He agreed to call in an expert to closely inspect town roads to determine which ones are at a critical stage where work needs to be done and which are beyond reclamation and require a major output of money to start from scratch to reconstruct them.
Councilman Paul Shepherd, while going along with his colleagues, said at some point the town has to commit to funding repaving that can’t simply depend on grants.
With relatively low interest rates, he thought borrowing to get road projects done quickly might be the way to go.
“We should start thinking about the long term,” he said.
But Councilman Peter Reich said the only residents who would favor bonding would be those whose roads were covered by the project.
DEER & TICK
Ms. Lewis, while agreeing about the need for long-term planning, said the two issues that demand attention this year, based on what residents are telling her, are problems with deer and water quality.
Both of those are slated for sizable money in the 2016 budget.
It currently appears that Nick Ryan, who has been deploying and maintaining 4-poster units, will return to his public works responsibilities, while Beau Payne, the animal control officer, will take on the added responsibilities of dealing with the 4-poster units.
Until Mr. Payne is properly licensed by the state to handle the tickicide permethrin, he would work under either Mr. Ryan’s license or the license Mike Scheibel has as natural resources manager at Mashomack Preserve. Mr. Ryan worked under Mr. Scheibel’s license until he had completed work for his own certification.
WATER QUALITY
The Town Board has bitten the bullet for $37,500 to pay for the initial year of a three-year program to test water quality and salinity levels. A similar amount will be needed in 2017 with lower costs expected in the third year.
Budget talks resume Tuesday afternoon following the Town Board work session with issues affecting salaries of workers not covered by contracts.
The board will also be looking at costs associated with adding an extra part-time worker to Mr. Card’s crew versus paying overtime to current workers.
It’s likely the Town Board will wind up its sessions by the end of next week and then schedule a public hearing, likely to occur right after the election.
A 2016 budget must be adopted by the third week in November.
