Public Hearing Finalizes Next Year’s Spending

By: John Thomas
Staff Writer

Town Supervisor John Burrell waited a full ten minutes after 6pm Wednesday night to start the meeting of the Town Board, in order to let the public find their way to the board room for the public hearing. At 6:10pm he called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. He then formally opened the public hearing. As there were no members of the public at the meeting, it moved along quickly. On Monday night the board had met to go over the preliminary budget, and Supervisor Burrell noted that he had increased the general fund by $10,000 to account for extra police presence for next years Fall Festival. He went on to announce that the property tax will be $1.21 per $1,000 assessed property value, up from $1.12 this year. He pointed out that this is in compliance with the states cap allowing only a 2% increase in property taxes. He also said he was pleased to provide a budget for the town that is also within the 2% cap. He mentioned the budget calls for paying off the loan for the restoration of the brick on the exterior of town hall. The move will save us interest in future years. Mr. Burrell also mentioned that there has been a tremendous increase in the costs of the state retirement accounts, and that workman’s compensation cost have also risen dramatically. But he pointed out that he and the board have effectively held the line on spending, and that the budget allows for a 2% pay increase for the towns non-union employees if they qualify. There was no input from the floor, so a motion was made and passed to close the public hearing. The Chairman asked the board members if they had any other questions or discussion of the budget. They did not and a motion was made to adopt the budget, which passed.
The Villager received an advance copy of the budget, and in looking it over can confirm that the only substantial increases in the budget are State Retirement and Worker’s Compensation, as the chairman had mentioned. State Retirement will go from $26,312 in 2011 to $42,399 next year. Likewise Worker’s Compensation increases to $9,817 from $4,673 last year. Costs will be decreasing in the Supervisor’s and Assessors’ offices, and there will be some savings in insurance payments. Copies of the budget will be available to the pubic at the town office on Friday.