Public hearing on 2010 town budget

November 27, 2009
by Christine Yeres

At Tuesday’s town board meeting, Town Administrator Gennaro Faiella began by outlining the board’s proposed 2010 budget, then Supervisor Barbara Gerrard opened the public hearing on the budget. Six residents addressed the board and administrator chiefly on police overtime expense and burdensome taxes. The town board members offered no comments in response.

 

Recap of proposed 2010 New Castle budget

Town Administrator Gennaro Faiella outlined the arduous 2010 budget process that resulted in a proposed tax increase of 1.5%, if refuse collection is reduced from two times to one time per week. A year ago, looking forward to 2010, Faiella recalled, “we recognized that the financial situation for most governmental entities would be turned upside down, with revenues depleted and expenses strained, so we began in January to look at the 2010 budget.” He reminded the audience of 20 that of every tax dollar residents lay out, only ten cents goes to the town, whereas 72 cents goes to the Chappaqua Central School District (about $107 million for schools plus $2.5 million for library), 15 cents to the county, and the remaining three cents to special districts such as fire and paramedic service.

Moreover, Faiella pointed out, the town must pony up the money for all other taxing jurisdictions, so that, for example, if school tax collection lags as it did last year by $1.1 million, it is the town that must advance the money from its reserves, set aside for that purpose, and obtain repayment later from the school district when the delinquent taxes are finally paid.

The town’s operating budget of about $35 million is made up of almost equal halves of taxes and revenues. The roughly six thousand households in New Castle each pay an average property tax of approximately $3100 per year, or $260 per month. The average residential property assessment in New Castle is $160,000, which translates to a market value of $941,200. The reductions in assessed value granted for grievances filed by residents in the spring of 2009 resulted in an $87,000 drop in property tax revenue.  Employee pension and benefit costs have risen, Faiella reported, and will rise at a greater rate in 2011.

The town has put off vehicle replacement for police and DPW for 2010. The new trigger for snow removal from downtown sidewalks will be six inches’ accumulation, and take place in daytime hours rather than during the night on overtime. In an attempt to keep the proposed tax increase for next year at 1.5%, the budget assumes that town refuse and recycling pickups would be reduced to one day a week, same day but different trucks for each.

Public comments on 2010 budget

Ellen Schlossberg, a resident with in-driveway garbage pick up, asked how her in-driveway pick-up service might be affected as a result of the change to one day a week refuse and recycle pick-up. Faiella responded that the 800 homes that pay for in-driveway pick up will continue to be visited twice weekly, since in order to fit into driveways trucks must be smaller – and have smaller holding capacity – than trucks that operate exclusively on roadways. (Faiella has mentioned in prior town board sessions that the refuse company has set a limit of 100 more clients for in-driveway service. To go beyond a total of 900 such contracts would require expenditures for additional equipment and personnel.)

Resident returns with answers to questions on police budget

David Ross

David Ross, a resident who first brought up the subject of the police overtime at the League of Women Voters budget forum, reported to board members the information Faiella has since supplied him, separating emergency and non-emergency overtime. Ross reported that Faiella’s figures show that in 2009, the police department paid for 11,624 hours of police overtime, and of that total, 7,680 hours of overtime were due to coverage for police officers out sick. Ross told board members, “I think this is egregious and must be addressed in a much more comprehensive and immediate fashion,” adding that “we are now six to eight months past the most significant financial crisis we’ve ever had.”

On July 24, 2009, NewCastleNOW.org reported in “Police Chief offers ideas on costs to trim, revenues to create,” that “Police officers’ schedules are set a year in advance, and changes to their schedules must be made with at least three months’ notice according to their union contract. Changes that occur within the three month period must be accounted for as overtime, another requirement of the police officers’ contract.”

Resident urges budget moderation in good times and bad

Steve Walsh

Steve Walsh, a 24-year resident of New Castle, spoke next. Referring to a Journal News report on municipal salaries in towns across Westchester and Putnam counties, he told board members, “I was alarmed when I saw that eight of the top ten salaries [for the highest paid municipal jobs in New Castle] were police, making between $170,000 and $125,000, and that doesn’t include extremely generous pension benefits. Most of us in the private sector work our whole lives and save our own money. We don’t have pension plans. And when you take total compensation into account, as the last speaker pointed out, I think it’s abusive.”

He continued, “It took a pretty tragic financial event to bring us to this period of austerity and to being careful about the budget going forward. I worked with a guy who just transferred to New York from Chicago, and he didn’t even look in Westchester [when buying a home because taxes were so high].  Some of that is out of our control, but it alarms me that our home values and our future are being compromised. Our taxes are just too high and they need to be managed all the time going forward, in good times and bad.”

Resident proposes four-point plan to tame costs, including zero-based budget

John Ehrlich

John Ehrlich asked the board to extend the budget hearing process since many people were out of town for Thanksgiving. Then he went on to propose “four process changes that will radically affect the budget.”

“First,” Ehrlich said, “rather than basing each year’s budget on the prior year’s budget, I propose that we move to a zero-based budgeting process in which every single expenditure the town makes is reviewed every three or four years.”

“Second,” he suggested, “move as many expenditures as possible from ‘mandated government funding’ to ‘contributory funding.’  Set up a non-profit, for example, such as the Central Park Conservancy in New York, to fund the parks and recreational facilities. This would significantly reduce costs in terms of field maintenance. If even 25% of residents were to contribute $25 to $100 per year, it would provide a significant cost reduction.”

“The third is most painful,” he acknowledged. “Adjust headcounts to equal the mandated expenditures such as pension, health insurance and MTA payroll tax expenses.  Make it an automatic quid-pro-quo. The logical adjustment to pension change is to adjust head count. We have wonderful employees and good departments, and sometimes it may feel that you’re cutting arms and legs and bones, but we have to address this [with both town government and police].”

“The fourth is so obvious that I don’t know why we’re not making it priority number one,” Ehrlich concluded. “Increase commercial and retail revenue so that we can decrease the amount [of tax revenue] that must be provided by residential taxpayers. We have almost no manufacturing; retail is on the decline; stores are closing; and the one commercial taxpayer that everybody in town knew about, Reader’s Digest, is leaving town. We can’t keep going to the residential taxpayers, and it’s hard to [bring down costs] little by little. That’s why I propose these four changes.”

Board and residents should appeal to representatives at county and state levels

Eric Nicolaysen

Erik Nicolaysen addressed the board, complimenting them “on what you’ve done so far,” and telling them that he agreed with the last speaker, adding, “We face a situation in Albany and I see no interest on Albany’s part in [reacting appropriately to] the economic environment that’s occurred. State aid to New Castle was $1.2 million this year. No question but that next year we will face a cut in it, similar to the cuts they talk about for the school district. This is something we have to start writing to state representatives about, also to county representatives. The State of New York ranks third in the number of government employees to population, 138 per 10,000.”

Nicolaysen stated, “I also question the amount of state aid and mortgage tax revenue [assumed in the 2010 budget]. Based on the sales I’ve seen [from my position as a member of the Board of Assessment Review], I think you’re budgeting too high, unless there’s a major turnaround in the economy. The rest of the country may improve, but with the tax burdens [Albany imposes on us] I don’t see us recovering in the next year.”

He added, “Pension costs will become an even greater burden in 2011, 2012 and 2013.  Start looking at every department in order to handle the kind of problems we have coming. Look at every department and say ‘What are we doing, what can we cut, what other mechanisms can we use.’  You’re looking at a lot of cutbacks.  You’ve done a good job, but you are only facing the beginning of the tornado.”

An appeal for wider input from community

David Koggan

The last resident to speak in the hearing, David Kogan, told board members, “You’ve done a commendable job dealing with a tactical crisis, but what I’ve heard is a lot of more fundamental concerns about the foundations of the town’s infrastructure and the process we’ve all grown accustomed to. We need to spend time being more strategic.  Perhaps [use the ideas you’ve heard here], perhaps others. Certainly the revitalization of our town is smart. Perhaps sharing services?”

He continued, “We need to be careful that we don’t get caught in a trap of being so tactical that we wait until it’s too late. We’ve enjoyed the benefits of the financial markets and the benefits of many people paying very high tax rates, we’ve all enjoyed that. But we need to think of what the foundation of our economic well-being is.”

He asked, “There are only 20 residents here. Most of them have similar concerns and ideas, or other ideas of what we can do to improve. How can we reach out to make this a forum for everybody so we can come out with the right answers for everybody?”

To see a replay of the hour-long budget hearing online, click HERE and choose the far left graphic for the “November 24, 2009” town board meeting.

[As of this morning, Friday, November 27, NCCTV’s video-on-demand of the budget hearing stops short after the fourth of six speakers].

Meetings are replayed also on public access television channels 47 or 78.

Supervisor Gerrard closed the public hearing on the budget. The board has a work session scheduled for Tuesday, December 1, and will vote to adopt a budget one week later, in its regular meeting on December 8. Asked last week whether the closing of the budget hearing would fix the budget in its current version, Gerrard said that board members continue to consider comments residents send to them. Their email addresses are below.
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For more NCNOW.org articles and letters on the 2009 budget, click HERE.  Below are email addresses for Mr. Faiella and town board members:

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