Days after a contentious election cycle, the Guilderland Town Board quietly adopted next year’s budget.
The Town Board held a public hearing on its proposed 2014 budget Thursday, Nov. 7, but no residents shared any remarks on the nearly $32.19 million spending plan. Following the lackluster hearing, the board unanimously approved the budget holding a tax levy decrease of approximately 1.4 percent, or just over $153,000.
Town Supervisor Ken Runion said the adopted budget falls around $415,000 below the town’s state imposed property levy tax cap.
“I think that just goes to show how well we are doing here,” Runion said.
Runion described the town as being in “great shape” financially even after coming out of the worst of the recession starting around 2008.
“We are seeing increased revenues. We have reduced our costs here, and so I think the future is very good for the town,” Runion said. “I think we are probably the only municipality in the Capital District that has a tax cut. If we continue to budget and monitor our costs the way we have we may see additional tax cuts in the upcoming years.”
Part of the tax levy decrease was achieved through an additional $195,000 of fund balance allocation, which totals more than $1.71 million.
The town’s reserve funds totaled approximately $14 million at the end of 2012, which has increased from around $11 million in 2009, according to Runion. Last year, the town’s fund balances increased by $2 million.
“We appropriate some of our fund balances every year, but we have not used the appropriated fund balances in the last three years,” Runion said. “We put it in there to make sure we keep our tax rates level.”
He also said revenues are “always” budgeted lower than what is actually realized.
“Our sales tax revenue is ahead of what we projected for last year,” he said, “and if that trend continues, we may not have to use the appropriate fund balance.”
Spending is increasing by around $378,000, or 1.19 percent, as revenues are budgeted to increase more than $313,000, or 1.64 percent.
The budget includes a 2 percent raise for union and non-union employees, as well as for elected officials. Runion said salaries had not increased for two years and several retirements have also led to hiring new employees at a lower salary.
Runion said health insurance costs are increasing around 5 percent, which is less than previous years when it increased around 8 to 11 percent. State pension costs are dropping by about $83,500 from this year to total $205,585.
Runion also wanted to shift duties of the town attorney and deputy attorney, which will have the deputy attorney taking on night court duties. This effectively had no change in expenses, he said, because the new town attorney’s salary will be lower as the deputy’s is increasing.
“There is a little bit of a savings there, but not much. It is really just a reallocation,” he said.
Councilman Brian Forte said the budget saves residents “some money” while maintaining town services.
A summary of the town’s adopted budget is planned to be posted to its website at www.townofguilderland.org. The complete budget can only be viewed at the Town Clerk’s Office.