Town officials have turned over a nearly $83 million budget to the public for review.
Although Colonie is facing many of the same hurdles hitting other municipal budgets next year, town officials are proposing its smallest increase in recent years.
At a 4.3 percent, or $3.4 million, increase over last year’s $79.5 million budget, homes assessed at the town average of $200,000 will see an increase of $20 on next year’s tax bill under the proposal.
If passed, next year’s homestead rates would increase by 3.8 percent, or 10 cents, making the combined rate $2.75 per $1,000. Commercial properties would see a slightly larger increase of 17 cents, resulting in a 4.9 percent increase at $3.63 per $1,000.
Supervisor Mary Brizzell and Comptroller Ronald Caponera sat down Tuesday, Oct. 3, to pitch the fiscal plan they say is moving the town toward controlling rising costs as well as chipping away at a three-year, $8 million deficit.
We put a financial plan in place, and we stuck to it, said Brizzell.
Colonie is also looking at more than $5 million not budgeted for 2008 in land sales, including its share of the county-owned Heritage Park site, as well as the possible sale of the Colonie Community Center on Central Avenue.
Caponera mentioned several ongoing concerns that have historically hit the town’s books hard at several times the cost of inflation. Among the largest increase in 2008’s tentative budget comes by way of state retirement system contributions, budgeted at $4.3 million.
`These costs have escalated so fast, our revenue streams can’t keep pace. They have escalated far beyond the cost of inflation,` said Caponera.
The increases have climbed drastically in as little as five years, he said. By 2008, liability and workers compensations coverage, health insurance premiums, energy costs and unfunded state mandates are being budgeted at just above $7.5 million.
As part of its financial plan, the town has been moving toward having employees contribute more to health-care premiums. Recently, the town and police settled a longtime contract dispute that resulted in officers contributing 1 percent of their salaries toward health insurance premiums.
Although large, many of the increases are absorbed over time through new accounting regulations that have municipalities operating more like private companies, said Caponera. They have accounted for a `structurally balanced` process by taking into account land and equipment depreciation.
He used the landfill’s opening of a new site, which is currently under construction, as an example. Construction of the new site continues out of more than $2.5 million budgeted next year for land purchases, equipment and projects at the landfill. However, under the new accounting practices, the town must figure in the closing costs of the new sites that won’t come into play more than 20 years from now.
With such expenses forecasted, the town will have money earmarked for such projects and mandates, meaning it can get to work on whittling away its deficit. Caponera and Brizzell said they hope to have it gone by 2009 or 2010.
The town has scheduled a public hearing on the tentative budget for Thursday, Nov. 8. Copies are available at the Clerk’s Office at Town Hall in Newtonville.
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