Vote on preliminary budget tabled

AMENIA — Despite town Supervisor Janet Reagon pushing the board for a vote, at the suggestion of Supervisor-elect Wayne Euvrard, the Town Board tabled a vote on adopting the 2008 preliminary budget as the final budget.

A second vote has been scheduled for tonight at 6:30 p.m. during a Town Board meeting in Town Hall.

The preliminary budget calls for a tax rate increase of 0.7 percent from the previous year.

During the public hearing, residents issued concerns about the budget, including Charlene Pollinger, who called the budget "dramatic," but not in a good way.

"This may be the first time that there has been no fund balance shown in general funds in the history of the town," Pollinger said. "So this is quite dramatic. Maybe if I sat down and concentrate I might figure it out, but it would take a while."

Resident Jeanne Rebillard said she was concerned that the budget did not accurately display expenditures.

"I am coming here tonight looking at this budget and asking how realistic is this budget?" she said. "There should be a resolution for every movement out of the contingency line, but I don’t see them. How do we as a community feel secure that the numbers we are looking at here are the true numbers for expenditures?"

In response, Reagon said no one could predict the future.

"Nobody is clairvoyant," she said. "No one can sit at this table and say that we will spend a certain amount of money from this particular line. Things happen, needs change."

When asked by Euvrard about how the estimated revenues of $912,000 was figured, Reagon could not answer, which led to a long period of time where members of the audience were shouting out potential answers.

"None of these numbers match, so I have no idea how you come up with $912,000 for general and $513,000 for highway," Euvrard said. "How do you come up with the tax rate? How do we come up with the estimated revenue?"

After several minutes, Reagon finally answered.

"What that number is is the total revenue, subtract the taxes and you come up with that number," Reagon said.

Resident and former town councilman Bill Carroll said he noticed the budget for the Amenia Fire Company went up significantly, by $38,600, for a total of $159,700, which Reagon did not dispute.

"The Town Board does not have anything to do whatsoever for either the Amenia or Wassaic fire companies," she said. "They are separate legal entities, and the town collects the taxes for them. On my own bill in the Wassaic fire district, I don’t think I’ve been overtaxed over the years because if we had to pay for the services volunteers provided, this budget would have been blown out of the water."

Also scheduled for tonight’s meeting is an executive session with the town attorney concerning the town clerk audit.

The meeting will be held at Town Hall at 6:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than its regularly scheduled time.