New Lebanon Town Board Changes Budget
by Thaddeus Flint
Early on at the New Lebanon Board meeting on November 10, Town Supervisor Mike Benson predicted that the results of the rancorous discussions on the 2016 budget wouldn’t “make either side happy,” in the end. [private]Benson was pretty much right about that. And depending on what side one was on, with the Town’s Bookkeeper position eliminated and the Fire Department not getting the full funding asked for, some were less happy than others.
The bookkeeper, also known as the Supervisor’s Confidential Secretary, was a position added by Benson in 2013. Benson dropped his Supervisor’s salary to $5000 per year to largely pay for the position. However, with Benson out and Town Clerk Colleen Teal in next year as Supervisor, it was decided to bump the Supervisor Salary to $17,000 and eliminate the bookkeeper’s line of $12,000. Teal, who has a minor in accounting, will take over the day to day accounting entries.
“Did anyone tell the bookkeeper?” asked Lebanon Valley Protective Association President Ed Godfroy. The bookkeeper, Eileen Evans, was not in attendance that night. However, as she’s Councilman Dan Evans’ mom, she probably found out about her impending job loss pretty soon.
The LVPA, on the other hand, was well represented at the meeting, so nobody had to tell them later that they didn’t get as much as they wanted. The Tentative 2016 budget for the fire department was $247,210, but that got dropped to the 2015 amount of $220,860 largely on the basis of Benson’s and Councilman Chuck Geraldi’s questioning of the proposed new fire station that to them seems all rather mysterious at the moment.
“They really don’t know what they are building right now,” said Benson, “and they don’t know what they are building it out of.” Whatever they are going to build, if they get to build it, it’s probably going to be expensive. “Outside of school construction, it will be the largest construction in this Town,” said the Supervisor.
Geraldi pretty much said the same thing.
“Something needs to be built,” pointed out Councilwoman Irene Hanna, though she was unsure what. According to Hanna, just updating the old firehouse would cost around $500,000. And that would probably not even get it up to code, pointed out Fire Chief Ben Wheeler.
Councilman Evans noted that the LVPA was working for the taxpayers to improve a facility that would help the taxpayers. “The money is not going to be wasted,” said Evans, who has been a LVPA member since he was 16. “They have been responsible with taxpayer money, and have seen on the horizon a need for a new fire house.”
Benson pointed out that operating costs for the LVPA were about $125,000 for 2015. He proposed a compromise of $178,000, but at a motion from Hanna, the $220,860 was put on the budget.
“I trust them,” said Hanna which was met with a certain amount of scoffing, snorting, grumbling, and eyeball-rolling from some in the audience. It’s a curious phenomenon really, whereby residents trust the LVPA with their lives. But when it comes to trusting the firemen with their dollars, that trust suddenly isn’t as strong as it might be.
The budget Benson originally wanted showed no tax increase for 2016. This looks good to some, but not to others. One of those others is next year’s Supervisor, Colleen Teal, who doesn’t get much say about the budget she is going to be stuck with.
“I know of a lot of assets that we are not maintaining,” said Teal. “It needs to be done. It’s been needing to be done for 14 years.”
Benson’s proposed 2016 budget back in September was $1,706,679, or over $88,000 less than the year before, which itself was $265,818 less than the 2014 budget.
Geraldi questioned if it was wise to keep tax increases at 0%. With the State enforcing tax caps each year, what if something big should come along demanding a large increase? “If we keep cutting them, we won’t be able to put anything back in,” he said.
“We are going to be hog-tied if anything comes up,” agreed Councilman Matt Larabee.
Geraldi wanted to keep the amount to be raised by taxes the same as this year and leave the unexpended fund alone. At his motion, $75,000 was taken out of the unexpended fund.
A final vote on the budget, found the new last-minute budget passed 3 to 2, with Hanna, Larabee, and Geraldi for, and Benson and Evans against.
The Town will also be paying more for health care next year. At the motion of Hanna, the Board voted with all in favor of keeping the same plan as last year, at an increase of about 15%.
“We should treat them as well as possible,” said Hanna of the Town’s covered individuals, three employees, one spouse, two children, and a family.
The total budget for 2016 is now $1,753,264, with $903,559 of that for the Town General Fund and the Library, $623,845 going to the Highway Department, and $220,860 to Fire Protection. The amount to be raised by taxes will be $1,042,564 and $75,000 will come from the unexpended balance. In 2015 the numbers were $924,103 for Town General Fund and the Library, 649,738 going to the Highway Department, and $220,860 to Fire Protection. The amount raised by taxes was $1,080,401 and $70,000 coming from the unexpended balance.
In the end Benson was more or less correct and nobody in the room appeared happy except Robin Reynolds who was from out of town. Reynolds could be described as “chipper.” And why not? She’s saving the world one small town at a time. Reynolds was from Climate Change Associates asking the Board to consider becoming a Climate Smart Community. If New Lebanon passes a resolution agreeing to a ten part plan to reduce emissions and increase recycling, the Town can apply for state grants, receive favorable consideration for other grants and receive assistance for local projects. Kinderhook, Chatham, and Copake are already on board. “There is no risk,” pointed out Reynolds in case anyone had fears that DEC or some other State agency would later be checking in to see if the Town were in fact doing the things they pledged they would. The matter was taken under advisement by a Board which didn’t appear to be in the mood to be making any more decisions that night.
The meeting ended with future Councilman Mark Baumli asking Benson about money the Town pays in its contract with the County for Chatham Rescue. Benson has been asking similar questions pretty much from the day he started his Supervisor career. For some reason New Lebanon appears to pay a rather large share in proportion to other towns in the area who have even smaller populations. It looks like it will be up to somebody else to get that answer.
“Good luck with that,” sighed Benson. “I tried.”[/private]