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Thread: 2021 Lancaster council election / budget

  1. #1
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    2021 Lancaster council election / budget

    There is a town council election going on this year to fill a vacant seat until January 1, 2022. You would never know it by the lack of campaign mailers, flyers, and even signs.

    Can’t be too important right? Wrong, especially now where the town filed the worse, most disastrous tentative budget ever. A tentative budget that is now the preliminary budget and which does not meet the tax cap limit. The two revisions made by Supervisor Ruffino were made unilaterally and are non-binding; not approved by consensus of the town board.

    How could anyone miss that the $1.58 million (6.6% increase) tax levy increase (Amount to be Raised by Taxation) was well over the tax cap limit?

    How could anyone not recognize that the $353,000 use of fund balance was not even enough to meet the tax cap limit, much less to lower the tax burden.

    The 2021 budget 6.6% tax levy increase when compared to the last four years of tax levy increases (which were well under the tax cap):

    2017 – 2.8%
    2018 – 4.8%
    2019 – 3.3%
    2020 – 2.6%
    2021 – 6.6%

    The tentative budget’s $353,000 use of fund balance from a $11.33 million pot pales in comparison to fund balance use in the past four years:

    2017 - $1.34 million
    2018 – $1.34 million
    2019 - $1.5 million
    2020 - $1.69 million
    2021 - $353,000

    What is ironic is then council member Ruffino voted ‘no’ to all four budgets (2017-2020) – budgets that met the tax cap limit, used an appropriate amount of fund balance to balance the budget and lower taxes and still leave a healthy fund balance. And his first budget is a disaster.

    What should be noted is that Dawn Gaczewski served on the town board for those four years and assisted in developing the final budget for adoption. The same Gaczewski who took heat for signing on to override the tax cap if need be, and which never happened. Unlike this budget that exceeds the tax cap limit and where no override provision was sought and needed.

    There is a dire need to elect someone to the council that is not only experienced in the budget process, but in total government operation. That person is Dawn Gaczewski, not another inexperienced ‘yes’ man vote for the Supervisor.

  2. #2
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec View Post

    What is ironic is then council member Ruffino voted ‘no’ to all four budgets (2017-2020) – budgets that met the tax cap limit, used an appropriate amount of fund balance to balance the budget and lower taxes and still leave a healthy fund balance. And his first budget is a disaster.

    What should be noted is that Dawn Gaczewski served on the town board for those four years and assisted in developing the final budget for adoption. The same Gaczewski who took heat for signing on to override the tax cap if need be, and which never happened. Unlike this budget that exceeds the tax cap limit and where no override provision was sought and needed.

    There is a dire need to elect someone to the council that is not only experienced in the budget process, but in total government operation. That person is Dawn Gaczewski, not another inexperienced ‘yes’ man vote for the Supervisor.

    I have yet to hear Mr. Wozniak's reaction to the 2021 budget document currently under scrutiny.

    Why has Mr. Wozniak remained suspiciously silent on that budget product and other issues which place into question Mr. Ruffino's management skills and his so-called applied "fiscal conservativism" during his eleven months as Supervisor?



    Surely the circumstances described above present Mr. Wozniak with an opportunity to impress the Lancaster voters, taxpayers, and residents with insights that would attest to what he has previously described as his "skills and thought processes that can help to lead our town out of this crisis...," do they not???

    Click on this attachment, from Mr. Wozniak's 2020 letter to Conservative Primary voters:

    image - 2020-10-29T022521.779.jpg

    Don't wait Mr. Wozniak, speak up now; impress us.




    Quote Originally Posted by mark blazejewski View Post


    As I understand Mr. Wozniak's background, there is truly no measure of his philosophy, other than his very recent switch from the Democrat Party to the Conservative Party.

    Moreover, as I understand his resume, his experience lacks a legislative record attesting to his purported fiscal conservatism, and therefore, the voter is required to rely on Mr. Ruffino's interpretation of such conservatism to define Mr. Wozniak.

    It is my opinion that Mr. Ruffino's past voting record appears to be replete with "Yes" votes to high tax and spend budgets, rezones, "Friends and Family" patronage, and the faithful embrace of the wants of developers. Does Mr. Wozniak approve of that record, and is he committed to such applications in the future?

    Furthermore, should I, as an enrolled Conservative, not be concerned that Mr. Wozniak, who is said to hold "the same ideology" as Supervisor Ruffino, seems to have remained suspiciously silent on Mr. Ruffino's requests for a pay raise and the reinstatement of the Supervisor's stipend for budget duties?

    Is the voter expected to rely on the substance of this story in order to glean the true, full, and complete testament in support of Mr. Wozniak's suggested "conservative values" and "ideology?"..

    Attachment 19096
    With Dawn Gaczewski back on the Town Council, I am confident that the Town of Lancaster will not revisit the current confusion and crisis when the 2022 budget is submitted next year.
    Last edited by mark blazejewski; October 29th, 2020 at 02:39 AM.
    LIDA Member Rinow to Member Ruda: You were a sitting Trustee on the Board. Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board?"

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