No Tax Increase
by Alex Brooks
The Petersburgh Town Board held its final budget workshop on the 2021 budget on Monday November 2, and it appears that the tax levy will remain the same as this year, or perhaps even decrease slightly.
The budget the Board started with that night showed a tax levy increase of 0.6% and then the Board added $30,000 to the highway budget, but they also decided to apply about $35,000 of this year’s unexpended balance to reduce the levy next year.
The meeting began with a discussion between the Board and acting Highway Superintendent Adam Beaudry. Beaudry said he was satisfied with the budgets for general road repairs, snow removal, and machinery, but he requested that the budget for capital improvements to roads be increased. The CHIPS budget, which is used for paving and other major road improvements, is normally $80,000 annually according to Town Bookkeeper Charles Guntner, but is budgeted for $60,000 for 2021 because with the State budget crisis the Town is expecting CHIPs to be reduced in the coming year.
The Town also has a budget line for major road improvements that are not funded by CHIPS. In the Preliminary Budget that line had a budget of $10,000. Beaudry requested that it be increased to $40,000. He said he wants to do major improvement projects on Scriven Road (about 1.6 miles) and Puckertoot Road (about .7 miles), as well as paving the south end of Coonbrook Road.
Beaudry said there have been many years of inadequate road maintenance, and it is time to get started with rebuilding some of the roads, with adequate crowns and properly sized culverts and ditches. The Board agreed to raise that line by $30,000 as requested.
When it came time to adding it all up and determining the tax levy, Councilman Heinz Noeding said he thought since the Town collected $35,000 from the taxpayers in 2020 for the purpose of paying for the tri-town ambulance service and has not spent any of it, the Town should apply that sum to reduce the 2021 tax levy, which would eliminate any increase in the tax levy and perhaps even reduce it slightly. The Board agreed to this, although bookkeeper Charles Guntner said there is a larger unexpended funds balance in the highway fund than there is in the General Fund, and it might make more sense to apply funds from the Highway unexpended balance to reduce the tax levy. Noeding said he doesn’t really care which fund it comes from.
The Board also discussed the Water District budget. The Board lowered the budget for electricity from $5,000 to $4,000 because the first number had been based on this year’s extraordinary electricity usage caused by running the pumps a lot to make up for leaks. The thought was that without leaks, electricity usage would go back to more historically normal levels. The Board also added $500 to the equipment budget (which had been 0) for equipment that Water Operator Len Clapp had requested to purchase.
The Board has learned that once Water Operator in training Michelle Todd has passed her test to get her water operator license, she still needs to be supervised by an experienced Licensed Water Operator for 6 months. Members discussed whether they needed to increase the budget for salaries for 2021 because of this, but in the end decided to leave it as it was, with $12,000 for Water Operator salary and $2,500 for Deputy Water Operator.
Because there seems to be a problem keeping the Water District budget in balance, the Board expressed an intention to increase Water District users fees by 5%, but this will be enacted at a subsequent meeting.
Heinz Noeding said there were some discussions with Taconic the previous Friday, and one of the things discussed was a contribution to Water District operations to cover personnel time and electricity cost devoted to keeping the PFOA equipment in operation. This may bring a small amount of new revenue to the Water District, but Noeding said the details have not yet been worked out.
The Board scheduled a Public Hearing on the 2021 budget for Monday November 16 at 6:30 pm.