PUBLIC HEARING ON 2012 TOWN BUDGET
November 9, 2011
6:00 pm
The Town Board met this date as per Resolution #123 and notice in the official town newspaper, with the following members present: Supervisor Stanley, Councilman Bartlett, Bernstein, Jordan and Malloy.
Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag
Roll Call
NOTICE of HEARING upon SHANDAKEN’S
PRELIMINARY BUDGET
NOTICE is hereby given that the preliminary budget of the Town of Shandaken for the Fiscal Year beginning January 1, 2012, has been completed and filed in the office of the Town Clerk, at 7209 Route 28, Town Hall, Shandaken, New York, where it is available for inspection by any interested person at all reasonable hours.
FURTHER NOTICE is hereby given that the Town Board of the Town of Shandaken will meet and review said Preliminary Budget and hold a Public Hearing thereon, at the Town Hall, at 6:00 PM on the 9th day of November 2011 and at such hearing any person may be heard in favor of or against the Preliminary Budget as compiled or for or against any item or items therein contained.
PURSUANT to section 113 of the Town law, the proposed salaries of the following Town officers are hereby specified as follows:
Supervisor………………………………………………………..$30,000.00
Town Justice…………………………………………………….$17,187.00 each (two)
Councilman………………………………………………………$ 9,000.00 each (four)
Town Clerk/Tax Collector………………………………….$31,954.00
Highway Superintendent…………………………………….$44,346.00
Assessor Chairman…………………………………………….$31,954.00
Assessor……………………………………………………………$ 5,000.00 each (two)
BY ORDER OF THE TOWN BOARD
Laurilyn J. Frasier, RMC/MMC
Shandaken Town Clerk
Dated: October 13, 2011
Supervisor Stanley introduced the Town Accountant Lin Churchill, he will then give an overview of the Town Budget for 2012.
Lin Churchill
I am going to keep it brief, the budget is available on the table and has been available for several weeks now except for a few last minute changes, so I will just give some of the changes from last years’ budget.
The Supervisor has been working with the County to try to pin down what they call the Saftynet costs. That is the Social Services costs that are passed on from the County to the Towns. In the 2011 budget which caused some confusion, because we did not have that number, when the budget got down to the county they added that number on before they assessed the taxes, so the figure that went into the tax bills was different that the figures in the budget. This year there is a number put in the budget that the County provided which is an estimate of $20,000 the 2011 budget was $35,641. We are hopeful that this will not change significantly.
The County also provided us with election costs which were higher than the previous amount it came to $36,000 which is a $16,000 increase from the 2011 budget and this is included in the 2012 figures.
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Public Hearing on 2012 Budget
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Other costs we have no control over and some we have a moderate control. One they don’t have control over are the State Retirement Rates, these are published every year by the retirement system and when published they are applied to the salaries of the people in the retirement system and this year they amounted to $168,000 figure compared to $145,000 figure in the 2011 budget.
Workers compensation insurance and health insurance there is a moderate amount of control, they can shop for a different provider, but right now $47,500 for workers compensation insurance increased from $39,000 from last year. Health insurance not too bad it went from $250,000 to $265,000. These are all for the general fund and there are similar increases for the Highway fund. Other costs are budget estimates for fuel oil, gas for the cars, police cars and highway department trucks it is any one’s guess what these costs will be, because they go up and down so they figured the best estimate they could in the 2012 budget.
Fire Districts and Libraries set their own budgets and then they go out for a vote on these budgets. These are not under the control of the Town Board, whatever is voted on, is added into the Town budget.
2% cap adopted by the State for Schools, villages and towns does not affect their own budgets because they vote on their own budget.
Supervisor Stanley – as Mr. Churchill stated after we had completed the budget, we received notification from the Board of Elections of a $16,000 increase and knowing that the library budget was coming up for a vote, we started looking at some places within the budget to retract from. We are basically looking at a .67% increase. If you paid $1,000 last year, this year you will pay $1,006.70. That is really the only major change that we have in here. We have reduced a number of lines, attorney, building contractual, we took small amounts from Town Board, Town Attorney, and other amounts from budget line items. Next year I don’t know where we will find any extra money in the Town Budget. We talked about consolidating election districts or moving two districts to one place, but we would still have to pay the same amount of people so it would not be much of a savings.
Public Discussion
Heidi Clark – Chairman of the Assessors – Presentation
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Councilman Jordan asked if Heidi had come up with the costs to other towns, the amount of time it took other towns, etc. as we had asked you. In order for me to make a decision, I have to believe that we are doing this the most efficient and cost effective way possible.
Ms. Clark said that right now it has cost us $47,000 and we have collected all of the data, now we are on phase two, which is putting the data on the computer, this is something that needs to be done, you just don’t do one phase.
Councilman Jordan, I understand, it also has to be updated. I am in favor of getting it done, but we have to find out what it has cost the other towns to do it and then figure out what we are doing and then get it accomplished.
Assessor Carol Seitz added that this work is not getting done, we would like to hire someone for a minimal of $10 per hour to help us, we are doing all we can and the work is not getting completed.
The Assessor’s project was discussed between the Town Board, Assessor Seitz and Clark
Motion by Supervisor Stanley to close the public hearing on the 2012 budget, seconded by Councilman Jordan, all in favor, motion carried.
