Don’t override cap, says residents
Residents attending the October 18 meeting, which included a public hearing on the proposed local law to override the tax cap, urged board members to forgo that option and keep the budget within the cap. (The public hearing will resume on October 25). “Enough is enough. The town must cut (costs) to live within its means,” said Fred Allen. Bearsville resident Nancy Butler-Ross described herself as a freelance writer whose income has declined in recent years. “Maybe town employees should also accept a salary decrease,” she said. Michael Suib, also of Bearsville, suggested that many unemployed residents of Ulster County would happily accept even part-time jobs with the town of Woodstock.
When Allen proposed that the adoption of a budget in excess of the tax cap be put to a townwide referendum, as opposed to a vote by the Town Board to adopt a local law, Moran demurred. “In a democracy you elect representatives to make such decisions,” said the supervisor, noting that elections, including referendums, represent an increasing expense for the town. In 2012 the town’s contribution to the county’s expenditures on elections — a so-called unfunded mandate, which in this case originates with a federal law — will increase to $54,000, from $35,000 in 2011. Other unfunded mandates, over which the town has no control, include contributions to the county’s social services “safety net” and to state-managed pension funds, although the latter contributions redound to retired Woodstock employees.
In the October 19 interview, McKenna said that he envisioned two main choices as the Town Board prepares a preliminary budget: “slash and burn,” that is, make wholesale cuts in personnel and services (the terms are nearly interchangeable); or pass the local law to override the tax cap. The councilman noted that his efforts to solicit public input on service cuts have yielded inconclusive results: many residents are generally satisfied with the municipal services that they receive, and consequently struggle to identify areas that they would trim or eliminate. “I see no clear recommendations about where to cut services,” he said.
McKenna added that, in his view, the abolition of an entire service — in this case, dispatch — would be “crazy,” at least at the moment. As an alternative he would favor an incremental approach, such as the elimination, on a trial basis, of a selected dispatch department shift. A switch to the county’s dispatch service could entail hidden costs and pose problems, such as assigning responsibility for scheduling dispatch shifts in the absence of a full-time department head.
“We have already started to take baby steps to tighten town government, such as adjusting some employees’ hours,” he said, alluding to proposals contained in the tentative budget. “But we don’t know what the budget’s tax increase will be because we don’t have realistic budget numbers from the supervisor.”
Meanwhile, said McKenna, a case can be made for the adoption of a local law to override the tax cap. “I would point out that Albany gave towns this override mechanism,” he said. “That’s where home rule comes in. We are the local elected officials, who have to balance all the needs of our constituents.”
By way of context, town taxes account for only 22.5 percent of a Woodstock property owner’s total annual tax bill. School taxes represent 56 percent of the total, with county taxes constituting the remaining 21.5 percent. In 2010 the owner of a Woodstock property with an assessed value of $272,000, the townwide average, paid $1,273.61 in town taxes.
