Quoted from Libertarian4life

ROTTERDAM
Town budget with tax cut is proposed
BY NED CAMPBELL Gazette Reporter

   Reach Gazette reporter Ned Campbell at 395-3134, ncampbell@dailygazette  . net or @nedcampbell on Twitter.
   It’s hardly news when an upstate New York municipality raises taxes.

   On Wednesday, however, Rotterdam Town Supervisor Harry Buffardi presented a tentative budget for 2015 that would lower them.

   The $22.50 million spending plan would cut the town property tax bill by $60.71 for a home assessed at $173,456, the town’s average.

   “This has certainly been a difficult budget process,” Buffardi said. “Certainly we have rising costs, rising issues, and it’s difficult to keep our governments afloat with mandated issues that we have; however, we have made it through with substantially good results this year.”

   Buffardi said the budget was balanced with some “belt tightening and some process changes” such as outsourcing the town’s paramedic program to a private company last year.

   He said instituting a new $50 brush pickup fee and increasing the flat water fee from $25 to $75, decisions made in February, also paid off.

   “The leaf and brush fee that some people call a tax, some people call a fee — I don’t really care what you call it. … It is something that is paid for by the users,” he said “It is starting to bear fruit now, and it is starting to help us in the budget process.”

   John Paolino, a financial consultant to the town who presented the tentative spending plan, said the budget uses $566,000 from the fund balance, the rainy day fund of unspent money from previous tax years, which currently stands at roughly $1.6 million.

   “That’s down $200,000 from last year, so we’re beginning to try to back off of continually using that fund balance,” he said.

   He said the plan also requires $581,695 in payroll reductions, which will be discussed with department heads during upcoming budget meetings.

   Paolino agreed with Buffardi that the brush pickup fee and the water fee increase were necessary.

   “Those changes that the supervisor made had to be made, and you’re probably looking at more changes in the future,” he said. “I don’t think you’re gonna find another town where they’re gonna say their taxes go down.”

   Town Board member Joe Villano questioned Paolino on that prediction, however.

   “The town tax rate in Milton actually can’t go down; it’s at zero,” he said. “The town of Wilton, their effective general tax rate is zero. The town of Clifton Park, their general tax rate is zero. …The town of Charlton pays negative town taxation.”

   Buffardi later came to Paolino’s defense.

   “With all due respect, I think it’s a little bit unfair to compare the town of Rotterdam to the town of Charlton, the town of Wilton, the town of Clifton Park, for several reasons,” he said, adding that those municipalities are in a different county, don’t all have sewer and water and are benefiting from increased tourism and growing business base.

   The Town Board is expected to have a public hearing for the preliminary budget Wednesday, Oct. 22. The budget must be approved by the board by Nov. 20.