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Health & Fitness

How Would You Spend $1.2 Million of YOUR Money?

What would you do: Use a $1.2 million surplus for a one-time savings of $3 in your town taxes -- or -- to pay for long term improvements like paving roads, fixing neighborhood drainage problems and repairing unsafe bridges and culverts?

How Would You Spend $1.2 Million of YOUR Money?

Supervisor Grace has determined that there’s an ”excess” of $1.2 million in the town’s  fund balance, aka, its emergency rainy day fund.  He wants to “give back” the excess to us by lowering our town tax rate for a single year. For a typical homeowner, the tax cut amounts to a savings of $3.03.

If you had a say in how the “excess” could/should be used, which option/s would you choose?

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  1. Give it all back to the taxpayers this year for a one-time reduction in town taxes
  2. Give back only some of the excess this year, even if it meant increasing your town tax by less than $10 and,
  3. Use the balance of the “excess” to pave roads, or
  4. Use the balance of the “excess” to pay cash, instead of borrowing and paying interest, to pay for needed capital projects such as
                      neighborhood drainage projects
                      bridge, culvert, and road repairs/replacements
                      repair recreational facilities
                      create additional ballfields
 5. Keep the “excess” in the fund balance for emergencies
 6. Other (increase spending for police services, library hours, senior programs, etc.)

Supervisor Grace’s budget also includes a little noticed increase in water rates.  Although he hasn’t said how much of an increase he’s proposing, since his budget includes a 16% increase in revenue from water sales, it’s reasonable to assume that he plans to increase the water usage rate by 16%.

Do the math.  A 16% increase in water rates will end up costing most taxpayers considerably more than the Supervisor’s one-time tax “give back” worth only $3.03.

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When the Town Board meets on November 14 and 15 to review the Supervisor’s budget, the use of fund balance is likely to be the most contentious discussion as it will affect future budgets and future tax rates.  (The meetings are open to the public.)

Town expenses are increasing faster than non-tax revenues. That’s an undisputed fact.

And it’s an undisputed fact that the Supervisor’s 2014 budget uses $1.2 million of “excess” fund balance to fill the expense/revenue gap.

What will happen in 2015 when there’s no more “excess” fund balance that can be used to fill the expense/revenue gap?  (We have Hurricane Sandy and FEMA to thank for the current “excess.” Should we be wishing for another hurricane in order to create another “exess”?)

Is giving taxpayers a one-time rebate the best way to use the current $1.2 million in excess fund balance?  And if so, what impact will the give back have on 2015 and 2016 tax rates?

(Past budgets always included a four year projection of estimated tax rate increases based on projected increases in expenses and revenue, combined with the possible use of fund balance and anticipated changes in the assessment roll. But in 2012, and without any explanation, the Supervisor did away with this “look  ahead” financial planning tool.)

If you have an opinion on what should be done with the $1.2 million fund balance excess, now is the time to share that opinion with the members of the Town Board. Don’t wait until the December 11 budget hearing to voice your opinion.  By then it’s usually too late for the Board to make major changes in the budget.

The $1.2 million excess is YOUR money.  How do you want it used?

For more insights into the 2014 budget, visit www.yorktownbettergovernment.org

 

 





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