Petersburgh May Raise Taxes 9.6%

by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board held its final budget workshop for this year and has arrived at a budget that may be close to where they will end up with the final budget. As it stands now, the tax levy will increase by about $63,500, which is an increase of about 9.6%.
[private]The budget process started with a $100,000 deficit because last year there was $100,000 of unexpended balance used to offset the tax levy and this year there is no unexpended balance available for that use. Budgeted General Fund spending is about $36,000 less than 2013, and budgeted revenues are up by about $2,000, so the General Fund has reduced its demand on the taxpayers by a total of $38,000. But budgeted highway expenditures are $17,000 more than 2013, and budgeted revenues are $11,000 more than 2013, so the Highway Fund is increasing its demand on the taxpayers by about $6,000.
Councilman Bill Seel said early in this budget workshop that he had identified $41,000 in budget cuts that he was prepared to make, and he asked his fellow Board members if anyone besides himself had “an appetite for cutting the budget.” He said the General Fund  has grown a great deal in the last few years, and he feels it is time to roll it back. The General Fund budget grew by about 20% over the three years from 2010 to 2013, from about $390,000 to about $470,000, and by the end of this workshop it was down to $433,500.
Seel’s proposed cuts included getting rid of the Court Clerk Assistant, the new position of Constable (funded at  $750 for the year), the Supervisor’s Secretary, the Town Clerk’s Assistant and cuts to the budgets for Attorney, Building Inspector, Seniors and the Youth Program. The Board did agree to cut the budget for the Town Clerk Assistant in half, from $3,000 to $1,500, but he could get no agreement  on any of his other proposed cuts to the Town’s secretarial expenditures or on any additional cuts to the Seniors or the Youth Program. The Seniors already agreed to a cut in their budget from $4,230 to $3,500, and Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst, along with Councilmen Richard Snyder and Duane Goodermote, did not want to reduce that funding any further. They also supported leaving the Youth Program funding the same as last year, with the proviso that actual spending must be kept at or below the budgeted amount, which has not been the case in recent years.
The Board did agree to cut the Building Inspector’s salary from $9,600 to $7,500, and reduce the budget for the Town Attorney from $7,000 to $4,000. They proposed to end the practice of paying a salary to the attorney and asking him to come to every monthly meeting. Instead, they proposed to hire the attorney only on an as-needed basis and use legal advice from the Association of Towns more extensively.
There was extensive discussion of the proposed new Constable position. Supervisor Krahforst, who was a Petersburgh Town Justice for many years, said the position was needed for two reasons – to improve security in the courtroom and to serve papers on people when the judges issue a summons. He said the Town Court has been using the County Sheriffs to serve their summonses, which is not working very well. He also said he thought the Constable would pay for himself by helping to get properties on the tax rolls. The position was budgeted for $750, which was  carved out of the Court Clerk Assistant’s budget. By cutting the Court Clerk Assistant funding in half, from $1,500 to $750 and allocating that money to the Constable, the overall budget for the Town Court remained the same as last year. Bill Seel said he didn’t think the Town should be creating a new position in its current fiscal state, and he also said he didn’t think the Town should get into the business of serving papers. But Krahforst, Goodermote and Snyder wanted to leave it in, so it stayed in.
The Board did agree on a few other cuts, though. They cut the budget for mowing the rural cemeteries from $6,800 to $5,000 with the idea that they could be mowed a little less often. Similarly, they cut the contractual line for the Town buildings a bit with the idea that the buildings could be cleaned a bit less often.
By the end of the meeting, Councilman Goodermote said that although he is not really happy with this budget, he is satisfied that the Board has cut as much as they prudently could. Bill Seel disagreed, saying he is unhappy with this budget and feels the tax increase is too large. He said, referring to the Constable, “I can’t believe, with the state we’re in, we’re going to create a new position.”
The Board scheduled a Public Hearing on a local law to override the State tax cap for 6:30 pm on Monday, October 21, and Public Hearing on the Preliminary Budget for 6:45 on the same night, followed by the regular Town Board meeting.[/private]