Sam Messina, sitting Bethlehem Town Board member and candidate for supervisor, released on Friday, Oct. 16, a proposal that he says will allow the town to adopt a budget with a zero percent tax hike.
Incumbent Supervisor Jack Cunningham, however, says his pitch amounts to nothing more than political maneuvering and would be impossible to implement.
Messina is proposing that all major departments and programs cut their expenses by 4 percent and minor programs cut their budgets by 2 percent, for an estimated savings of $155,000.
He also said the salaries of the supervisor, Town Board members and town justice should be reduced by 10 percent for a savings of $40,000, and that the Zoning Board of Appeals should be consolidated with the Planning Board whose number of members would be reduced from seven to five for a savings of $30,000.
According to Messina, these changes would save the town $225,000, enough to offset the proposed $197,000 increase in the tax levy.
`A 2- to 4-percent reduction can be achieved,` said Messina. `I want the public to have a chance to see that there’s at least some flexibility and opportunity.`
Messina said offices like the Highway Department and Police Department would be considered `large` programs, while offices like the Town Clerk or Assessor would be considered `small` ones. The cuts would likely be `marginal,` he said, involving seeking out efficiencies and examining equipment expenses without impacting services.
Cunningham countered that the town has examined the possibility of spending cuts and would not be able to reap significant savings without making layoffs, which Messina emphasized are not a part of his proposal.
`We’ve been working very hard to cut spending, and there’s not a lot of areas that are left to cut,` Cunningham said. `What we need to do is find sources of revenue.`
He noted that personnel-related costs like health care coverage and pension costs are rising, with very little opportunity for recourse on the part of the town.
Cunningham declined comment on the pay cut element of the proposal.
`If he wants to make a motion when we’re actually going to approve the budget in November, he’s welcome to do that,` Cunningham said.
Messina told The Spotlight he was going directly to the press with his proposal, a fact confirmed by Cunningham who, as supervisor, is also the town’s chief financial officer.
`I’m disappointed that he would hand it to The Spotlight and not talk to the Town Board about it,` said Cunningham, who added that he believed the release to be politically motivated.
Messina maintains his amended budget is a suggestion to move the debate on the budget forward.
`I don’t have any other way to get this notion or thought out to the public,` he said. `I don’t jump onto emotional issues`and there are many of them out there now`for political purposes.`
When asked how he would go about making the cuts, Messina said it would have to be a collaborative effort put forward to department heads.
`You take them one at a time, you sit around the table with the department headsand you say, ‘Here’s our goal and objective,’` Messina said.
Cunningham argued that process has already occurred through public budget workshops earlier this year. In the meetings, the Town Board meets with department heads and talks about their budgets line by line.
`That’s the opportunity for the board to start to push back if they believe the spending is too high and ask questions,` said Cunningham. `[Messina] asked some questions, but he never said at any point ‘I don’t think we should spend this money.’`
`When we left those meetings, he was fully on board with the budget we had presented,` Cunningham said.
Councilman Mark Hennessey ` a Democrat not up for election this year ` said he found it `unusual` to see such a proposal via the press. He said the proposal was lacking in specifics, and said across-the-board cuts struck him as an `arbitrary` suggestion.
`We’ve tried to make tough choices without cutting into our core services,` he said.
He also said the budget workshops would have been a better time to present such an idea.
`There are front end points during that process when all of us had a chance to make our thoughts known,` he said.
Messina argued that the tentative budget released in late September was `crafted by Mr. Cunningham and his staff,` and that his proposal is largely in response to that.
`This is really the beginning of the process,` he said.
The tentative budget calls for a two percent tax rate increase, which would equate to a town tax hike of 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to $2.77.
Spending would increase under this budget by 3.78 percent to nearly $39.9 million, but the tax levy would be kept down through the use of alternative financing means like bonding or leasing.
Messina also said he thinks bonding certain capital improvements is a good idea, but would prefer to hold off on bonding $780,000 worth of paving expenses in the Highway Department in hopes that ongoing research into new technologies can result in more cost effective practices.
Highway Superintendent Gregg Sagendorph said he protests that assertion. While alternative paving practices are being used in limited situations, asphalt paving remains the best standard, he said, and skipping a year could have impacts down the road for the town’s 175 miles of highway.
`If we pave about 12 miles a year, which is what we average on any given year, we’re still falling behind on the curve,` he said. `To skip 12 miles of pavement, even for one year, deferring that maintenance just puts us that much further behind on our schedule.`
Asked how he would reduce his budget by four percent, Sagendorph said he would likely examine his equipment replacement schedule, but warned that cuts in staffing or equipment could threaten service.
`When a winter storm hits, you want reliable equipment ready to go,` he said.
There will be a public hearing on the budget prior to the Town Board meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The Town Board will likely adopt a budget at its Nov. 10 meeting. The tentative budget can be viewed at the town’s Web site: www.townofbethlehem.org.
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