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Taxes and Fees
Citing that this was the toughest budget of all to work on, Councilman Ronald Ruffino requested the Town Board get together with town department heads to look for further cuts. “Our constituents are telling John (Councilman Abraham) and me, while we are out campaigning for re-election, that they are satisfied with the services provided by the town, but not the tax load.
At the work session that precedes the regular Town Board meeting, Ruffino declared that he had seen the writing on the wall last year when economic times were changing and that we are now in a crisis mode. “When campaigning door-to-door, people are very happy with us. They are happy with our services, but people are also pleading that we keep their taxes down. It’s rough out there. Talking to people out there, they tell of losing their jobs, having their salaries frozen and there are still no signs for recovery. Our budget needs to be looked at. We need to have a meeting on it.”
Supervisor Robert Giza replied that when the budget proposal comes to him everyone (department heads) throws in whatever they want. “We know that things were getting bad. One of the things we considered, that you guys wanted, was no new hires. When I got the initial budget, it was 7.92 (town) outside the villages. In the Village of Lancaster it was 7.24 and in the Village of Depew a 7.5 percent tax increase; which I knew people would not accept. Dave (Brown – Financial Administrator) and I started cutting and got it down to 2.97 (percent tax rate increase); $28 for an average home in the town assessed at $100,000. In the Village of Lancaster I got it down to 2.78, or $16.19 per year on a home assessed at $100,000. In the Village of Depew, you may say there’s no increase. So, I did cut the budget. The budget is so temperamental that we don’t have a lot of built-in escape-goats here.”
“Yes, but looking it over again and trying to make more cuts is not unreasonable,” said Ruffino. “I had no problem increasing the budget when revenues were there and giving people more and stocking up on the savings for rainy-day reserves. The rainy-day has come and maybe we need some to agree that there is only so much (to work with) this year, and next year we’ll probably need again.”
Supervisor Giza retorted that they were $1 million behind right from the get-go. “We lost $400,000 in retirement (payout increase), a bunch of money lost from less sales tax and mortgage tax and the interest rates are paying hardly anything. I had to make this up and then try to meet the needs of the department heads. The only worse budget I ever dealt with was the first budget when I became Supervisor.”
Councilman Ruffino reiterated it was the toughest budget he was faced with and added that they should meet and give it another try to make further cuts.
Councilperson Donna Stempniak agreed and said they should line item review the budget.
“I did that,” said Supervisor Giza. “I went over it with Dave (Brown). “Dave is more cautious than me. We are hoping the reserves come back.”
Ruffino interjected that using reserves is a false way of addressing the budget. “It’s not proper or responsible to use the reserves up and leave the next person without a cushion.”
Council John Abraham agreed with Ruffino and cautioned the others to look back and see what happened with the county situation in 2004-05.
Stempniak interjected that she also has some questions for the department heads. “I’m not there every day, I don’t micromanage, but I need some explanation on what they are requesting. For me, it will be more informational.”
Supervisor Giza interjected with: “By far the biggest amount of money is in police. We had to take money from other departments because the police are on 24/7 schedules, their salaries are quite high, and their benefits are quite high. Then I would say highway and the fire department would be third. Our departments are being asked to do more. But if there’s no money in the budget, how can we ask them to do more?”
The board agreed to meet with the department heads at a special meeting (work session) scheduled for this Wednesday evening (tomorrow) October 21st. The meeting will take place in the Town Hall antechamber (work session room) at 6 p.m. and then again at 6 p.m. on Monday October 26th. No public comments will be allowed.
Other
Only two residents attended the work session meeting. There were three residents and a room full of students attending the regular meeting. No one spoke voicing concerns on the pre-file resolutions. One resident spoke on waste management suggesting the town advocate for having the waste management company have its employees place the lids back on the containers after their emptying.
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