10/4/07 - C’ville budget plan ups tax levy 11%

(As published by the Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The town’s tentative $5.9 million budget for 2008 projects an 11.3 percent tax levy increase, but the Town Board hopes to trim that back to 3 percent or less.

The town’s general fund budget is an increase of 2.6 percent over this year’s $5.7 million budget, but some revenues are down and some costs are up, Town Supervisor Dick Tupper said after the regular Town Board meeting Wednesday night.

When he says some costs are up, does he mean the $1.6M Town Hall renovation they just talked about in the 10/2/07 Cortland Standard article?

The proposed amount to be raised by taxes is $1.8 million, a $185,437 increase over this year.
The Town Board plans to meet at 3 p.m. Oct. 15 to review the tentative budget — the meeting is open to the public but does not allow for public comment.

The tentative budget is based on the unaltered budget requests from the town department heads and the proposed contracts, Tupper said. The contracts — which include agreements with the Cortland Free Library and McGraw’s Lamont Library, local recreation programs and various service providers — have yet to be accepted by the town and are “still up in the air,” he said.

“We’ve been in pretty good shape economically for the past two budgets and we haven’t messed with them (contracts) much. But this year, they keep creeping up on you so we have to take a look at them,” Tupper said this morning.

The exact figures for water and sewer tax rates were not available, but Tupper expected that they would be similar to last year’s, which amounted to about $87 or $88 per unit for sewer and about $91 or $92 per unit for water.

“The sewer revenue doesn’t equal the expenses at this point, but we have enough reserves that we don’t need to raise the rate,” Tupper said.

Town employees will be seeing pay raises between 3 and 4 percent. The town is also spending about 15 percent more for employee health insurance through Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Employee benefits account for about 5 percent of the total budget.

Some revenue sources are down but increases elsewhere have resulted in a 5.9 percent increase in total estimated revenue for 2008, for an estimated revenue of nearly $3 million. Tupper said the revenue portion of the budget should warrant further review.

“I would suspect that we could find some more revenue in there,” Tupper said, pointing out that increased development in the town should generate additional fees.

Also, sales tax revenue is always estimated conservatively in case of an unforeseen downward economic turn.

The Town Court’s budget request is actually down this year, Tupper said, and the Highway Department’s budget request is only slightly more than the current year.

“There are two or three items in there that I know can go immediately,” Tupper said in reference to budget cuts that can be made. “But it looks like a pretty good budget.”

Town Board member Ted Testa said he thinks the proposed tax increase can be brought down to zero, or near to it.

Tupper said the first public hearing on the budget would likely be held prior to the Town Board’s regular meeting on Nov. 7 and the final budget would have to be approved by Nov. 20.