by Alex Brooks
There was a good turnout to the public hearing on the Petersburgh Budget on Monday November 2. Apparently the word had got out that the Town intended to exceed the NYS Tax Cap and many residents wanted to know why and by how much.
[private]The tax levy increase proposed in the Preliminary Budget is 4.8%. The tax levy will increase from last year’s $714,540 to this year’s $749,317, unless the Board makes any more adjustments to the numbers before final passage of the budget.
The biggest areas of increased cost are health insurance for highway workers, highway machinery and equipment, and bridges.
The health insurance is primarily because an additional worker is being covered, when formerly one of the eligible employees did not need insurance from the Town. The line item was raised by $24,750, which Supervisor Krahforst pointed out is a 3.5% increase in the tax levy all by itself.
Supervisor Krahforst said the Highway Department has been underfunded and in need of equipment upgrades for quite a while, and it’s time to start that process. The highway equipment fund is raised from this year’s $30,000 to$56,400 for 2016. These funds are earmarked for a dump body for one of the trucks, for $21,400; purchase of two trucks from Rensselaer County for $15,000 each; and $5,000 for new radios needed to keep in touch with school districts and other town highway departments so as to better coordinate highway maintenance efforts.
A new Highway Equipment reserve is established in the 2016 budget and funded with a $30,000 appropriation, so that the Town can begin planning truck and equipment replacements based on predictable annual appropriations rather than having unpredictable repair bills, or a sudden need to buy new trucks and borrowing to pay for them.
The line item for bridges was raised from this year’s $20,000 to $50,000 in 2016 because the Broken Wheel Bridge project will be in full swing this coming construction season. That bridge is a $1.4 million project, and the Town is responsible for 5% of the cost, or $70,000.
Town salaries were generally raised by 5%
These were the main cost drivers, but there were other smaller ones. The Town Attorney budget was raised from 7,000 to $12,000, and the Deputy Town Clerk’s budget was raised by $1,000 from $4,500 to $5,500. A new item was added in the “Town Clerk” area of $1,000 for a “Summer Assistant.” Supervisor Krahforst complained that a large number of requests for documents under the Freedom of Information Law has been raising the Town’s costs for both secretarial work and attorney costs.
The Tax Collector’s budget for contract expenses increased from $400 this year to $4,000 in 2016, which is to pay for software needed to modernize the Tax Collector’s methods and practices.
If you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed that the increased costs mentioned above add up to a lot more than the $35,000 increase in the tax levy. Some budget lines have been cut to compensate for the increases. For instance, capital outlay for buildings was decreased from $18,000 this year to $10,000 in 2016 because much of the work that needed to be be done on the Town Hall has already been accomplished. But the largest factor compensating for the increased costs is an increase in the amount of the fund balance that is being used to offset taxes. Last year there was no fund balance money available to offset the tax levy. This year $60,000 of the fund balance is being applied in the General fund and $30,000 in the Highway Fund. Town Bookkeeper Charles Guntner said he estimates that the Town will have about $225,000 total cash at the end of the year.
After all of these issues had been explained and discussed, the residents assembled for the public hearing seemed to be satisfied that the budget proposed is sensible and justified, and there were no major statements against it.[/private]