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Budget tax levy increases by 8.8 percent in 2010
By Bob Green
The Stuyvesant town budget for 2010 shows an increase of about 8.8 percent in the amount to be raised by taxes, but due to last year's revaluation of all real property in town, the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value could fall by up to 9.5 percent, suggesting that many tax bills will see little change.
At a public hearing held just prior to the budget's adoption at November's monthly meeting, Supervisor Valerie Bertram said the town faced big increases in some costs that aren't under its control, such as retirement contributions which doubled from 2009 and health insurance rates, which increased 13 percent. Those two employee benefits alone account for more than two thirds of the increased tax levy, according to Deputy Supervisor Ron Knott.
Projections for sales tax revenue show an increase of less than 2 percent. Sales tax receipts are very sensitive to the economy, which may improve in 2010, giving the budget an upside surprise. Existing reserves are also being supplemented. “We took less from the unexpended fund balance,” in the 2010 budget, said Knott.
Knott said that, in the interest of "better recordkeeping", highway department spending on recreational properties and projects would be accounted for in the recreation section of the budget.
Lee Jamison, who trails Bertram by a few dozen votes while awaiting a final count of absentee and military ballots cast earlier this month, asked for similar treatment of a grant received for the restoration of the Historic Rail Station at Stuyvesant Landing.
“How do I know where to look for that?” she asked. She called the budget document "pretty opaque", and concluded that: "It's hard to know what you are looking at."
Councilwoman Roz Gumaer acknowledged that the budget's state mandated categories can take plenty of practice to interpret. "It isn't entirely clear," she said of the format, asking "how can we make it more transparent?"
Reached after the meeting, Knott said the rail station grant is tracked on a schedule of capital projects that is reviewed monthly by the Town Board.
During the hearing, he said, "The budget is an ongoing job. We all look at it every month, hopefully," in order to monitor progress on budget versus actual results.
For the second year in a row, Gumaer declined the pay raise granted to other town employees. "Most of us took a 3 percent raise. We gave the highway guys 3.5 percent," Bertram said at the hearing.
The revaluation of all properties in town yielded an increase of around 20 percent in total value, though several pending court cases could still lower that number. The increases were concentrated in a minority of properties that were found to be undervalued. According to figures provided by Knott, 29 percent of properties saw a decrease in valuation, and another 35 percent changed less than 10 percent in either direction. The resulting increase in the total tax base means a lower tax rate for everybody.
Calls for greater transparency in other matters were made by several of the 32 residents who attended the public hearing, which was not announced on the town Web site, but only listed, as legally required, in the public notices section of this newspaper.
Complaints over delays and errors on the site's calendar, and the completeness of other content posted there, go back years, and one resident has voiced concern that the town does not own its own domain name. Instead, it is registered to a contractor at a Kinderhook address, to whom the town clerk individually submits each and every site posting.
At a public hearing held just prior to the budget's adoption at November's monthly meeting, Supervisor Valerie Bertram said the town faced big increases in some costs that aren't under its control, such as retirement contributions which doubled from 2009 and health insurance rates, which increased 13 percent. Those two employee benefits alone account for more than two thirds of the increased tax levy, according to Deputy Supervisor Ron Knott.
Projections for sales tax revenue show an increase of less than 2 percent. Sales tax receipts are very sensitive to the economy, which may improve in 2010, giving the budget an upside surprise. Existing reserves are also being supplemented. “We took less from the unexpended fund balance,” in the 2010 budget, said Knott.
Knott said that, in the interest of "better recordkeeping", highway department spending on recreational properties and projects would be accounted for in the recreation section of the budget.
Lee Jamison, who trails Bertram by a few dozen votes while awaiting a final count of absentee and military ballots cast earlier this month, asked for similar treatment of a grant received for the restoration of the Historic Rail Station at Stuyvesant Landing.
“How do I know where to look for that?” she asked. She called the budget document "pretty opaque", and concluded that: "It's hard to know what you are looking at."
Councilwoman Roz Gumaer acknowledged that the budget's state mandated categories can take plenty of practice to interpret. "It isn't entirely clear," she said of the format, asking "how can we make it more transparent?"
Reached after the meeting, Knott said the rail station grant is tracked on a schedule of capital projects that is reviewed monthly by the Town Board.
During the hearing, he said, "The budget is an ongoing job. We all look at it every month, hopefully," in order to monitor progress on budget versus actual results.
For the second year in a row, Gumaer declined the pay raise granted to other town employees. "Most of us took a 3 percent raise. We gave the highway guys 3.5 percent," Bertram said at the hearing.
The revaluation of all properties in town yielded an increase of around 20 percent in total value, though several pending court cases could still lower that number. The increases were concentrated in a minority of properties that were found to be undervalued. According to figures provided by Knott, 29 percent of properties saw a decrease in valuation, and another 35 percent changed less than 10 percent in either direction. The resulting increase in the total tax base means a lower tax rate for everybody.
Calls for greater transparency in other matters were made by several of the 32 residents who attended the public hearing, which was not announced on the town Web site, but only listed, as legally required, in the public notices section of this newspaper.
Complaints over delays and errors on the site's calendar, and the completeness of other content posted there, go back years, and one resident has voiced concern that the town does not own its own domain name. Instead, it is registered to a contractor at a Kinderhook address, to whom the town clerk individually submits each and every site posting.
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