The Niskayuna Town Board swiftly and unanimously approved the town’s 2013 spending plan, though it was discovered after the fact a required piece of information was missing from the final document.
The board adopted the budget in a Tuesday, Nov. 20, meeting. The budget increases the property tax levy by 3 percent, or $330,000, narrowly within the property tax cap. The tax rate per $1,000 of assessed property value is increasing by about 5 cents to $2.45. The non-homestead tax rate, typically charged to commercial properties, is decreasing by 5 cents to a total of $4.99 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
There were not any amendments made to the preliminary budget before adoption.
Town Supervisor Joe Landry thanked department heads and town officials for their work in crafting the spending plan.
“The budget that is before the Town Board tonight continues to deliver the services that our residents expect, while keeping costs down for our taxpayers,” Landry said. “The goal of this budget is simple: to provide our residents with better services at the most economical cost.”
Absent from the adopted budget, however, was a page disclosing the salaries of elected officials, which towns are required by state law to include.
Landry said he was unaware of the requirement before The Spotlight made inquiries. He said it had not been brought to his attention before. The separate page of elected officials’ salaries will be included as the final page of the budget, he said.
“We will be putting that in the budget,” Landry said. “The elected salaries were always in the budget, it is just that they weren’t separated in the last couple of years.”
Landry said the budget reflects town priorities, such as public safety, emergency services, maintaining water and sewer systems, maintaining roads and improving youth and community programs.
“We realized many increases beyond our control, whether it is retirement contributions … or health insurance increases,” Landry said. “With those increases and with the tax cap there is not a lot of room for growth. There is not a lot of room for expanding programs.”
There is a slight increase in the senior programming budget that mostly covers switching one of two part-time employees to full time. That line increased from $79,000 to $115,000. The rest of the department’s budget remained flat and totaled $166,250.
Councilwoman Julie McDonnell said she was pleased the town is continuing its commitment to senior, youth and community services. McDonnell was concerned with how such services would be impacted in future budgets.
“I remained concerned about our future budgets and how we will continue to provide these services within a climate of rising costs and mandates, and property tax caps imposed by the state which simply do not reflect these realities,” McDonnell said. “I hope the state will rethink these policies and let our local taxpayers and elected officials make these decisions for our town in the future.”
General fund appropriations increased almost $41,000 from the tentative to preliminary budget. This was offset by revenue adjustments in the same amount; the building alteration permits accounted for the majority at a $35,000 increase to $175,000.
Resident Leslie Gold was pleased with the budget.
“I think the budget is as good as it can be,” Gold said. “I doubt the tax cap is sustainable and I think when the time comes if you need to override it, you should do that.”