UPDATED 11/16/09
The Rotterdam Town Board passed resolution to make the preliminary 2010 town budget the Annual Budget of Rotterdam for the fiscal year of 2010 on Nov. 10 at the Rotterdam Town Hall at 7 p.m.
The budget, which will amount to over $20 million will take effect at the beginning of the year after the unanimous vote Tuesday night by the members of the board, but not first without a comment from members of the incoming board of 2010.
The board held a public hearing for discussion of the town budget proposed for 2010 on Nov. 5 and again allowed a public hearing on the night of Nov. 10 before the preliminary budget went to vote, opening the floor to town members to speak their mind on the issues of the budget ranging from the proposed taxing district for the Rotterdam EMS to property assessments throughout the town. Bob Godlewski, town board elect, presented his feelings on parts of the budget ranging from the assessment of non-homestead and homestead homes to the decrease in the town attorney fees. Godlewski was also accompanied by fellow elected town board candidates Democrat Matthew Martin and Nicola DiLeva.
In a suggested changes to the 2010 preliminary budget, attorney fees for the coming year were decreased from $99,000 in the preliminary budget to $65,000, while tax case attorney fees have been reduced from $40,000 to $20,000, according to information provided by the town.
Town board supervisor Steve Tommasone and Godlewski debated the management of the town budget for 2010, until Tommasone stated that he would not go line by line in the budget and that he could have, `talked about this in debate form, but we didn’t get to do that,` citing the boycott of the League of Women Voter’s night by the Rotterdam Democrats during the recent election.
Godlewski went on to say that the decrease in the town attorney’s budget has the town robbing from the work of the town attorney, stating, `you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.`
Former board member Diane Marco also spoke about the decrease in the town attorney budget, stating that the budget decrease is unimaginable. `I just can’t sit here as a previous board member for eight ears. I have never seen the town attorney budget decrease like this,` said Marco, `it is unrealistic.`
`Do you really think you will get an attorney to come in here to do all this work for $20,000? I don’t think so,` said Godlewski.
While the elected members of the incoming Town of Rotterdam board were disappointed with the actions of the leaving board, Deputy Supervisor Joseph Signore believes that there are few items to complain about with a surplus of nearly $2.5 million in the fund balance. `The new board is coming in with a two and a half million dollar surplus with no tax increases in the past three years,` said Signore, `there are very few things to complain about.`
`Our costs for our attorney fees are on par with the last ten years,` said Tommasone in defense of the budget for the town attorney. Tommasone stated that people must understand that the town attorney budget also takes into account other fees including those associated with the Police Benevolent Association, labor costs and creation of policies for the town. `They try to characterize that its only lawyer costs,` he said, `If they has their knowledge of looking at prior administrations they would see that the costs are below average.`
The town board also passed resolutions to for bids to replace the Rotterdam Police Department’s current digital alarm receivers, a request to authorize the town planner t submit to the Capital District Transportation Committee a request to add the Hamburg St. Corridor Improvement project to the 2010-2015 Regional Transportation Improvement Program, resolution to submit a grant application to the Capital District Transportation Committee to conduct a Five Corners Land use and Transportation study and a resolution to bid for the sale of town vehicles. All resolutions were passed unanimously by all members in attendance. Councilmember John Mertz, a Republican affiliated with the No New Tax Party, was not in attendance.
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