Opponents say public was not given enough chance for input
With a 3-to-2 vote, the Niskayuna Town Board on Thursday, Nov. 18, passed the 2011 budget, which reached just over $13 million and held a nearly 3 percent residential tax increase.
Residents weren’t offered privilege of the floor, which disappointed some in attendance and troubled Councilwoman Liz Orzel Kasper. The night followed the contentious start with Kasper and Jonathan McKinney voting down the budget and speaking out against Supervisor Joe Landry.
I tried to make a motion to put a privilege of the floor in, but he said we are not having it, said Kasper the following day after the vote. `Last night was so uncomfortable. I voted the way I did because I felt there was not enough give and take, and there was not enough time with the public, where they said something and we replied to it.`
At the meeting there were a handful of seniors, which had attended previous meetings and criticized the supervisor for his direction with the senior program. During the budget voting the crowd made their stance known by verbally responding to board member statements.
The board voted on some individual sections of the budget before voting on the final budget. McKinney voted down all sections of the final budget and Kasper abstained from voting on all but one section and voted down the final budget. Landry and Councilwomen Julie McDonnell and Denise Murphy McGraw voted yes on all resolutions and the final budget.
McKinney brought up a recent letter from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation at the beginning of the meeting, which Kasper stressed she didn’t know the vital nature of the situation. The DEC deemed the town’s sewer infrastructure isn’t up to standards and is demanding a five-year plan to address the issue.
`Our infrastructure is crumbling and the DEC has confirmed that,` said McKinney.
He said there were 5 water main breaks in the last two weeks with one of them occurring on the street he lives on. The town has the choice to ignore the DEC, said McKinney, but money needs to start getting invested back into the infrastructure of the town.
`[The budget] represents in a lot of ways our past, our present and our future in this town,` said McGraw. `I’ve spent most of my professional career working to cut taxes and working to make upstate New York as economically viable as possible and now that I sit in this chair I cannot forget that people work hard for every dollar that they have.`
Kasper disagreed with McGraw about the economic soundness of the budget.
`The future is based on the use of plastic in the present,` said Kasper. `There will be no future, because you are cutting the wrong places.`
McKinney echoed Kasper’s concerns and said, `I think what the battle is, is present consumption versus investment.`
McDonnell disagreed said she thought the budget was fiscally responsible and keeps the tax increase on residents to a minimum while maintaining services to residents.
One focus of the budget is to make sure funds are set aside for paving, said McGraw. The historian position in the town was also reinstated, she noted. She also touched on the senior bus too, which will be bonded.
`The bus was not submitted by the senior program staff, nor was it submitted by the senior program committee,` said McGraw. `We knew it was important to the town.`
Kasper shared her thoughts on the bus proposal and said she resented the implication that as previous chairman to the seniors committee she did nothing for them.
`The bus probably was proposed because they were looking to cut corners,` said Kasper. `The $32,000 for a new employee that they don’t need could be towards the bus and we wouldn’t have to bond anymore money.`
Seniors previously have expressed they didn’t want any change in their senior program, which included the hiring of a new staff member, but Landry has said he only wants to add programs for the seniors.
`The town has not done nearly enough in the past to reach out to older adults and seniors to determine how we can best meet their needs,` said McDonnell. `In the past few weeks, we have heard privately from many seniors these seniors have not been treated fairly with the respect that they deserve.`
Seniors in the crowd erupted after her statement and started booing her, but Landry called the room back into order.
`One question that has never been answered is, ‘Who are the people that don’t like the senior program?’` said Kasper earlier in meeting.“
