North East adopts 2016 budget

NORTH EAST — The end of the year means one thing for towns in New York state — it’s budget season — and like its neighbors to the north, south and west, the town of North East just adopted its fiscal plan for 2016.

It was a challenge with the state-mandated .73 percent tax cap, said town Supervisor John Merwin.

“Fortunately, we were able to stay under that artificial tax cap, without a reduction of services,” he said, praising Budget Officer Lorna Sherman for all of the work she did making that possible.

“Lorna has been awesome in how she approaches the budget and working with the Budget Committee to come up with something to present to the board,” he added.

Sherman, for her part, agreed that budgeting with such a small tax cap makes the job more difficult.

“It’s getting harder with these tax caps going down and down and down,” she said. “Originally they started at 2 percent, and if it’s going down to zero next year that’s going to be impossible. I don’t know how any towns are going to do that.”

But that’s what the rumor is at this point — that the state is going to drop the tax cap to 0 percent for 2017. As it is this year, the town could not even raise taxes by a full 1 percent. North East actually only raised taxes by about $14,000 for the 2016 budget over this year’s budget.

“It’s not a whole lot of money,” said Sherman. “We have no control over that [tax cap limit].”

The 2016 budget figure amounts to $2,258,689 — that’s total appropriations minus the $373,055 line for the fire district fund. As Sherman explained, the North East Fire District is its own entity, with its own budget. The town, therefore, does not count it among its expenditures.

“We take out the fire department because it’s a totally separate budget,” she said. “We have no control over it. They give us their figure and we have to put it in the budget, but we have no control over it.”

The fire district budgets on the same yearly calendar as the town. Villages, normally, budget in the spring.

The town’s budget includes a general A fund, and general B fund (town only), the AB fund (highway, town only), the fire fund and the water district fund. The total amount to be raised by taxes in 2016, for all funds, is $2,122,774. Minus the fire district fund that amount comes to $1,749,719.

The highway department budget, meanwhile, remained constant. That was tough, said Merwin, in light of the spike in salt costs.

“We were very nervous because of the cost of salt that went up,” he said. “Out of the whole budget, the largest line item is the highway department. That’s covers the bulk of services that the town provides. That’s why, although we don’t want to rehash the highway garage issue, it’s so critical to house the garage in a suitable facility.”

Aside from salaries, many of budget’s components remained the same from last year in addition to the highway department budget, including the recreation line. Though the town typically grants a 3 percent raise for employees, this year, due to the tax cap, 2 percent raises were given.

“The hardest part to put together is just trying to give people raises and staying under the tax cap, because you can’t expect people’s health insurance costs to go up without giving them a raise to offset it,” said Sherman. “This year the raises held at 2 percent. In the past it’s been 3 percent; it varies from year to year depending on what the cap is. But this year we just couldn’t do it.”

For 2015 the town exceeded the state tax cap, due to the need to contract with Northern Dutchess Paramedics for ambulance service. For 2016 that $180,000 contract cost remains the same due to the contract terms, but for 2017 the contract might change.

“That price was good for two years, but this year it will have to be renegotiated for a new price,” said Sherman. “If their quote is significantly higher we’ll probably go out for bids again, which is probably going to be another reason why we’re not going to be able to stay under the tax cap next year, because it’s most definitely going to go up.” 

Workers’ compensation also changes every year; for 2016 it rose by roughly 3 percent. So, too, does health insurance increase; it’s up to nearly $68,000 in the 2016 budget.

Municipalities that remain within the tax cap limit are given reimbursement checks from the state, for a nominal amount. Those that exceed the cap do not receive the checks.

With the Town Board adopting the budget at its Nov. 12 meeting, the next step, Merwin said, “is waiting to Jan. 1 to put the budget into play.” 

For more information or a copy of the budget call Town Hall at 518-789-3300, stop by at 19 North Maple Ave., Millerton, or go online to www.townofnortheastny.gov.