Open letter to the Town Board on taxes

(The following letter was sent to all Town Board members on 9/5/2013.)

Dear Sirs:

I had hoped that after the Town’s auditor, O’Connor Davies, advised you, on two occasions, of the need to allocate special district charges based on actual services provided, you would have passed a resolution directing the Supervisor to complete the special district study you directed him to undertake last year.

The issue is one of fairness and equity. Are the more than 11,000 special district taxpayers being over-charged or under-charged? Are special district taxpayers being treated equitably?

However, it became perfectly clear at Tuesday’s Board meeting that the Town has no intention of doing such a study, and in fact, the Supervisor came up with yet another administrative service cost he believes should be passed on to the special districts: the districts should be charged for having certain General Fund staff “on call” in the event the districts need their services.

In light of Tuesday’s discussion, I am attaching a copy of a March, 2013 audit by the Office of the State Comptroller for the Town of Riverhead that deals with the allocation of special district charges. Note that the Town requested the audit.

The Comptroller’s Riverhead Findings and Recommendations could not be any clearer:  Special district charges must be based on the cost of actual services provided — which is exactly what O’Connor Davies said and exactly what the Board’s December 18, 2012 resolution was designed to accomplish. The resolution directed the Supervisor to:

“…undertake a study to determine exactly what general fund services are provided to the special districts, and at what cost, and that the findings of this study shall provide the basis for assessing special district fees for the 2014 budget that are reasonable and justified based on the actual services provided…”

Although O’Connor Davies has offered to assist the Town develop an appropriate methodology for allocating special district costs, in order to save time, the Town Board, working with town staff, may want to review the attached Riverhead methodology which appears to be very adaptable to Yorktown’s circumstances. Why delay in order to re-invent the wheel?

Given that the special district charges are the second largest non-property tax revenue source in the General Fund budget, it is critical that this methodology be developed as soon as possible so that the correct charges can be incorporated into the Supervisor’s 2014 Tentative Budget.  There is still adequate time to complete this task.

Arriving at the correct special district charge is not an issue that can or should be left to the Board’s mid-November review of the Supervisor’s budget. Arriving at the correct numbers will take time.

• First, there has to be Board agreement on the methodology, and
• Second, the methodology has to be applied to the relevant General Fund departments

By mid-November, the budget’s general outline has been set and trying to make changes in hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue and expenses becomes difficult. During last year’s budget discussions, there was considerable confusion when the councilmen were given revised budget numbers at the last minute and were expected to vote on them without having had sufficient time to review the new information.  Budgets are too important to let this happen again.

Arriving at the proper special district charge numbers can be done within the time that is available —IF — the Board is committed to adopting a budget that is based on fair, equitable and honest charges for the special districts.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Susan Siegel