McKenna angry
In remarks at the Town Board meeting and in an October 19 interview, councilman Bill McKenna expressed outrage at Moran’s financial management. “I am absolutely dumbfounded,” said McKenna, addressing the supervisor, at the meeting. “I can’t believe that after producing a tentative budget last year with a double-digit tax increase, now you’re hell-bent on a (maximum) two-percent increase. It’s disgraceful that you’re throwing this in our lap. Now, all of a sudden, we have a crisis. I have been screaming about a crisis for a long time.” After disclosing the discovery of the error in the 2011 budget to Woodstock Times in May, McKenna has sounded alarms about the state of town finances, proposing a spending freeze and frequently dissenting or abstaining in votes to approve expenditures.
This week’s disclosure leaves the Town Board with possibly unsavory options as it continues its work on a preliminary 2012 budget, which the board will present at a special meeting at 5 p.m. next Tuesday, October 25, at the Comeau Drive offices. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for November 1. The deadline for the adoption for a final budget is November 20. Should the Town Board fail to adopt a preliminary budget, the tentative budget would become the final spending plan.
The Town Board’s budgetary options appear to include the following.
As noted above, adopt the tentative budget unchanged, thus satisfying the conditions of the tax cap (pending verification of the calculations involved) but leaving the town with a meager fund balance.
Find ways to cut costs (presumably by reducing services, perhaps through layoffs, or by paring other expenses) or to increase revenues (widely considered unlikely) in order to achieve the dual objective of meeting the tax cap and fattening the fund balance.
Adopt a local law that would authorize the town to exceed the tax cap. The state law enacting the tax cap provides taxation entities, including municipalities, with such an option. The passage of a local law would require a vote for approval by three of the Town Board’s five members. The local law would remain in effect for one year and place no limit on the extent of the tax increase for that period.
Regardless of whether the board opts to adopt the local law, further cuts in the tentative budget seem inevitable. Vulnerable areas include a proposed 2 percent cost-of-living increase for most town employees and salary raises for others, based on pay grade; the elimination of health insurance coverage for part-time elected officials — specifically, the town’s two justices and its four Town Board members, excluding the full-time supervisor — as proposed by Moran; and the partial or total elimination of the emergency dispatch unit, which comprises four full-time and five part-time employees.
Councilman Jay Wenk announced at the meeting that he would not vote to adopt a local law to override the tax cap, adding that he would be unable attend next week’s presentation of the preliminary budget. (Wenk, who is running for reelection, abstained in last year’s vote on the 2011 budget, which otherwise was unanimously approved.) Councilwoman Cathy Magarelli said that she welcomed public input on the budgetary decisions facing the board, but noted that reducing an employee’s hours from full-time to part-time could translate into a loss of health coverage for that employee. Councilwoman Terrie Rosenblum withheld comment on Moran’s disclosure of the accounting error.
