Bindler begs for low spending increases
Supervisor Gary Gerth promises more cuts to his original budget.
Resident Donald Bindler challenged the Town Board at this week’s work session to find enough cuts to hold 2019 spending to 5 percent less than the current year’s budget.
He said that since the Town Board started with a 16 percent hike in the 2019 initial draft, the board would likely “take a victory lap” if the spending increase were down to 5 or 6 percent, but that would not be sufficient.
Many seniors and second homeowners will be hard hit by a large tax increase, Mr. Bindler said.
Mr. Gerth defended his initial draft saying it was his first town budget and neither he not the rest of the Town Board ever imagined a 16 percent increase. But he wanted members to have the opportunity to see what he and Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams had seen in meetings with department chairs and committee representatives.
But next year, he said he would start with a zero-based budget and build up based on his best judgment of what departments and committees needed and what the town could reasonably afford.
With a number of sessions yet to go, the Town Board had already reduced the spending increase to 12.4 and that is before the line-by-line examination that will take place starting next week.
After the Town Board completes its final meetings with the department and committee representatives expected to happen next Wednesday, the hard work of cutting more out of the budget will begin.
It’s expected to take several weeks of determining the final budget.
“We’re trying to turn out the most responsible thing we can,” Councilman Jim Colligan said.
