Numbers for the coming year show a 3.8 percent tax increase for residents
Glenville Supervisor Christopher Koetzle released his tentative budget for the coming year on Thursday, Sept. 30, with total costs for the town reaching $11.7 million. Early budget estimates show a 3.8 percent tax increase for residents, which Koetzle said would be an average $20 increase for residents within the town and just over $4 for residents outside the town.
It was critically important to me that the town still delivers the services to residents, said Koetzle.
A total of $1.1 million will come from the town’s fund balance, which is down from the current budget’s usage of $1.4 million. The fund balance is expected to total $2.8 million after the current budget.
`Replenishing the fund balance each year won’t be as easy as it has been,` said Koetzle.
Koetzle said he is trying to break away from dependence on the fund balance slowly, rather than through one drastic tax increase in the future.
The budget eliminates one full-time position and one part-time position and reduces two other full-time positions to part-time. Koetzle wouldn’t say which positions would be affected because he said the employees must first receive notification.
Koetzle estimated cutting the two positions and reducing the two others would save the town more than $125,000 a year long-term, by eliminating salary, retirement costs, health insurance and other expenses.
`The employees of the town of Glenville have to realize we could have asked for more layoffs and more cuts,` said Councilman Alan Boulant.
Koetzle said rising health-care costs were a main concern for the town.
`Obviously, we’ve seen a significant increase in health insurance and retirement funds, and I am not going to just pass on that increase to residents,` said Koetzle. `I looked at positions that will have a minimum impact on services.
Koetzle said he tried to create a budget with a multiyear approach to give the town’s financial condition a chance to improve over time. Unlike most surrounding municipalities, residents of Glenville bear the brunt of a tax increase the greatest. Around 80 percent of property taxes for the town come from residents, opposed to a more even distribution between residential and commercial in other municipalities.
`I think if you look at the pre-2008 economy, things were good,` said Koetzle. `We no longer have the revenue to support where we are.`
Councilman Mark Quinn said the town needs to get more `creative` about its revenue sources.
`I think the parks are a revenue source that we are overlooking, and we need to start aggressively pursuing that,` said Quinn.
Quinn said parks could yield much greater revenue from fees. Also, he said having concession stands selling food in the parks would help out. The town could also better advertise and promote the use of pavilions to increase renting fees acquired from them, he said.
Koetzle said adjusting for changes in the highway fund, which saw an 11 percent increase, was a big part of the budget. In 2010, the town received $500,000 from FEMA for a one-shot boost to the highway budget, but that money was not available this year, leading the town to tap heavily into the fund balance.
`We expended more fund balance than I would have liked to this year,` said Koetzle. `I wanted to do more, but we just couldn’t, because we had to address that $500,000 item.`
Koetzle is still looking into to lowering town expenses by encouraging concessions from unions on health insurance coverage. Koetzle said there are seven strategies to achieve savings, which include establishing a base plan for employees, increasing the co-pay for employees by $5, increasing employee premium percentage contribution, reducing or eliminating the `opt-out` option, eliminating prescription reimbursements, increasing drug card co-pays and establishing an upfront drug card deductible.
`Some of the unions seem a little more interested in making some concessions and getting a good contract relatively soon,` said Koetzle.
Any agreement with the unions would need to be reach by the 2011 Open Enrollment deadline of Nov. 3. Currently, these concessions are not included in the budget.
`It is unfortunate that some of the unions are holding such a hard line, and they need to get real,` said Boulant. `They can’t do business the way it was before.`
If unions can reach an agreement on health care, then Koetzle said it would be possible to give pay raises from the money that would be saved. He said if they accepted the $5 co-pay increase the town would save around $100,000, which could then be used for raises.
Koetzle said the Town Board will set a public hearing for the budget during their meting on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m. and the board will vote on the budget during their meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
`We have been working on this budget since we took office in January,` said Boulant. `I think this is a cautious budget. It is an eyes wide open budget.“
