After weeks of discussions and public meetings, the Bethlehem Town Board passed unchanged a 2013 budget proposed by Supervisor John Clarkson.
The budget passed in a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, Nov. 14, with Town Board members Kyle Kotary and Joann Dawson dissenting. Both said they did not agree with increasing the tax levy by 8 percent, saying residents are already struggling.
“I think there’s a perception, especially since no one came to speak at the public hearing, that there’s a perception that this increase is tolerable and OK,” said Dawson. “I don’t agree and I couldn’t vote for it.”
Development of the $37.9 million spending plan hinged on closing a roughly $3.5 million budget gap. The property tax levy will go up by 8 percent and spending was cut by 1.8 percent. The budget also includes a 7 percent decrease in staffing through attrition with the loss of 16 positions.
The gap is due mainly to the loss of a 20-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Selkirk Cogen natural gas plant worth $1.7 million. The older contract was allowing the town to essentially receive the share of payments meant to go to Albany County and the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District. Those two municipalities will now receive their full shares.
Clarkson said he was disappointed some members of the board believed the tax increase was too high because he felt the plan was economically responsible and well balanced. Under the state tax cap law formula, the town could have raised property taxes as much as 19 percent to make up for the PILOT loss.
Cuts include not funding the Colonial Acres Golf Course, reducing operation days at the compost facility and transfer station, reducing staff hours for the Parks and Recreation Department and increasing field fees to offset maintenance costs. The town’s Planning Board will also be cut from seven members to five and the town will expand the Lockbox service to more tax collection duties. Those cuts were said to save roughly $150,000.
A major point of contention during the budget process was whether to defund the golf course. The course has been operating in the red for the past two years and was projected to lose $40,000 in 2013. Another $270,000 in capital improvements were scheduled for the future.
The Bethlehem Town Board first agreed to lease Colonial Acres Golf Course in 2008 for $1 per year from the Open Space Conservancy. The five-year agreement called for Bethlehem to maintain the 43-acre property. The course sits on approximately 30 of those acres. The lease expired in August, but the town has continued on a month-to-month basis since.
Several residents, including former Supervisor Sam Messina, spoke in favor of maintaining funding for the golf course so the town would have more time to look at its options concerning the property. Members of the local PGA chapter recently approached the town about arranging a possible private manager for the course, possibly turning it into a haven for younger golfers learning the game.
Messina said he believe the town should not completely give up control, but thought the two groups could work together on operations.
“I think you should establish a partnership and be involved in the process and not walk away at this budget,” said Messina. “The reason I believe that is, no one is going to have Bethlehem’s interest up front like Bethlehem.”
Both Kotary and Dawson felt the town should keep the course in the budget. While neither offered specific suggestions for further cuts to lower the tax rate or keep Colonial Acres open, Dawson suggested using some of the $1.7 million in reductions from this year to fund one of those prospects.
Clarkson and Comptroller Michael Cohen had planned to use a portion of the town’s savings to cover about $1.1 million in retirement cost increases over three years. The plan also calls for the savings to be used to alleviate the cost of the step increase in the Albany Water Contract in 2014 and use some funds to update home and commercial assessments throughout town. Dawson said those monies could be tapped now.
“I’m saying we take some of the $1.1 million to smooth out the (tax) increase over time,” Dawson said. “We could at least give people this year — when we know what our economic situation is — a break.”
Kotary had similar thoughts on the tax hike.
“I voted against the budget because I could not vote for the tax increase, which I felt was unnecessarily excessive,” said Kotary. “I am also disappointed we couldn’t find a way to keep Colonial Acres by making cuts or choices to keep it open as a golf course. I felt we needed to fund it as a backup plan in case someone from the private sector doesn’t step forward.”
Kotary said he would now make it one of his chief goals to make sure someone is found to operate the course.
Clarkson said he wished the tax increase was lower but said concrete ideas were needed to make that a reality.
“I don’t think it’s responsible just to say, ‘let’s figure it out next year, we’ll take money out of fund balance,’” he said. “That’s what we’ve done in the past, it’s not a solution, and I think residents want a long-term, fiscally responsible budget.”
Councilman Jeffrey Kuhn agreed.
“I asked over and over again for proposals of specific reductions that would allow us to reduce the tax increase and if I in any way believed further cuts would not compromise vital services or detract from the quality of life in the town, I would have proposed them myself,” he said. “It’s easy to say the tax increase is too much, but the difficult part is finding additional places to cut. Just an outright objection is hollow.”
The tax increase will equal an increase of about $67 for a $250,000 home, and make town’s tax rate $3.54 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.