Petersburgh Budget Heading Towards A 5% Tax Levy Increase

by Alex Brooks
Although the Petersburgh budget for 2013 has not been finalized, the Board has held two budget workshops and appears to be heading toward a budget that would increase the tax levy by about 5%.  The budget as it stood at the end of the second budget workshop was slightly below a 5% increase. The most recent draft shows an increase slightly above 5%
[private]Last years’s 2% tax cap law allows Town Boards to exceed the cap if they pass a resolution allowing a larger increase by a margin of 60% or greater. The Petersburgh Town Board passed such a resolution last summer.
Most Town officials will get a raise of about 3%, although some will get less, or none. Town Clerk Callie Crisp will get a 3% raise in her capacity as Town Clerk but a raise of 14.4%, from $7,611 to $8,710, in her capacity as Town Secretary because the work load for that job has increased significantly. Town Bookkeeper Charles Guntner asked for and was granted a 20% increase, from $6,500 to $7,800. He said his salary has not been raised at all in the last ten years, and he thought it was time to “bring the salary up to what other people in the area are making.”
It should be noted that the sum involved in these two raises, about $2,400, is not a significant driver of this year’s budget increases, being a fraction of a percent on the tax levy and only 6 to 7% of the overall increase in the budget this year.
The Assessor’s contract expense line is up by $9,000 this year because the Town will be starting a revaluation during 2013. The budget line for outside audits was raised from 0 to $5,000. Apparently the State recommends that an outside audit be done every year, and no outside audit has been done in Petersburgh for quite a few years. The cost of an outside audit was estimated at about $10,000.
The budget for an Assistant Town Clerk was raised from $1,000 to $3,000 because that line went over budget this year. The budget for an Assistant Court Clerk was raised from 0 to $1,500 because an Assistant Court Clerk was hired and paid in 2012 even though nothing was budgeted for that. The “contract expense” line for the Town Justices was raised from $2,800 to $4,000 because that was also over budget in 2012.
The amount budgeted for building improvements was increased from $15,000 to $20,000 because Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst said he wanted to spend some money on improving the heating system and the insulation in the Town Hall in order to cut down the cost of heating it.
There will be a Public Hearing on Petersburgh’s Preliminary Budget on Monday, November 5, at 7 pm at the Town Hall. The budget document is available from the Town Clerk during her regular hours.[/private]