The Town of Colonie released a tentative budget today it says it’s proud of with a slight dip in property taxes and a savings of $3.8 million in reduced expenses.
For the 2012 fiscal year, the town has proposed a budget of over $82.3 million, down 11.2 percent from last year’s budget of $92.7 million, and is also seeing a drop in the property taxes from $3.03 to $3.01. Supervisor Paula Mahan said this was due to efforts made by the Planning and Economic Department in working towards more redevelopment in the town and attracting more high-tech companies, which resulted in the town’s total assessed value being $31.7 million for 2012.
The town also has taken care of the debt needed to be paid off in the Highway Fund, due to what Mahan said was an illegal act committed by the Mary Brizzel administration of collecting around $21 million and placed it on a separate Highway Fund Tax line.
Also factored into the budget was the recent operational agreement for the town’s landfill between Colonie and Waste Connections, Inc. This helped eliminate t deficit for the landfill as well as the governmental funds deficit with an upfront payment of $23 million for signing the contract.
The town was also able to save money through the transfer of employees from the landfill to the Department of Public Works. This move saved the town a total of $1,098,272. With that move, it has allowed the town to reduce the amount of contractual expenses to the tune of $2,799,643. There was an increase in employee benefits of $1,411,794.
There will be more updates on this story so check this week’s print edition of the Spotlight
