Petersburgh Adopts 2013 Budget With 4.25% Tax Increase

by Alex Brooks
What began as a Public Hearing on Petersburgh’s Preliminary Budget turned into another budget workshop after errors were discovered in the budget document which, when corrected, would have led to a tax levy increase larger than the Board had intended. The Board went through it again and made more cuts and ended up with a tax levy increase of 4.25%.
[private]To get there, they zeroed out the $5,000 that was budgeted for outside auditing, because, said Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst, “We can’t afford it.”
They cut the increase for capital outlay for buildings, so it is budgeted for $15,000 (the same as last year) rather than $20,000.
They also cut the Planning Board’s contract expense line from $8,000 to $7,000, and the increase in the Assessor’s budget, to pay for the revaluation, is lower than in previous drafts. It is now $3,500 more than last year.
After making these amendments to the budget, the Board adopted the 2013 budget by formal resolution.
Assistant Court Clerk
The Board also took up the question of the Assistant Court Clerk position. Apparently this position has been in existence for quite some time, and it has been paid, but the position was not listed in the organizational meeting resolution, and it did not appear in the budget. To remedy this situation, the Board passed a resolution creating the position and setting a limit of $250 which can be spent on it from now until the end of the year. Two thousand, four hundred dollars has been paid to the Assistant Court Clerk so far this year, according to Bill Seel. The 2013 Budget has $1,500 in it for this position, and Seel was adamant that it should not be overspent in the upcoming year. The resolution creating the position passed 4-1, with Bill Seel voting against it.
Water District Refinance
Supervisor Krahforst presented the Board with information about the proposed bond to pay off the Water District’s original USDA loan. The existing loan is at 6% and has 12 years of payments left on it. The new bond would be at about 3% and would be paid off over 10 years. The Board authorized the Supervisor to sign the papers for creating the new bond.
NYSERDA Energy Audit
Supervisor Krahforst asked the Board to approve doing an energy audit of the Town Hall. The audit would cost $4,490, and NYSERDA would pay half, so the Town would have to pay $2,245. Krahforst said the audit has to be done in order to get any grants for energy efficiency. Duane Goodermote said he didn’t want to approve such an expenditure until he knew more about what grants the Town could get after doing the audit, and David Alderman agreed with him. The matter was tabled until more information could be gathered about what grant funding this might lead to.[/private]