By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN
It’s a bare-bones budget that keeps taxes stable and eliminates four full-time jobs and three seasonal jobs – the public works superintendent would go and the police chief would be reduced to under halftime.
And it puts all the savings into short-term and mid-range plans to bring village streets up to par in “two budget cycles,” with the top priorities listed as Susquehanna, Beaver, Delaware, Chestnut, Spring, Averill and Grove.
It leaves quality-of-life expenditures – parks, concerts and youth programs – intact.
“We’ve got to change the way we use our money,” Mayor Joe Booan said in an interview on his proposed 2011-12 budget, which was distributed to the trustees Monday, May 21, as required by law. “Village government has to get smaller, and we have to redirect the money according to our priorities.”
Other high points include:
• Asking that the Village Board not accept any salary until trustees “have demonstrated fiscal responsibility, restored significant change in infrastructure, (and) demonstrated a plan for long term savings to address our needs.
• Raises of 2 percent for village employees, but elimination of “longevity payments” some employees have been receiving, and no raises over last summer for seasonal employees
• A determination to develop and implement performance evaluations for village employees, “installing a merit system to encourage best practice, and revising our benefit plan structure. This will increase efficiency, and reduce costs.”
• No department is spared, so that no sector of village governoment bears “an unfair burden.”
• Brian Clancy’s superintendent of public works position is being eliminated because, with the hiring of street superintendent Kurt Carman and strong leaders at the water and sewer plants, it is no longer needed.
• Police Chief Diana Nicols job would be reduced to 4/10ths of a position, since an ACL injury prevents her from leaving the police station. “A six-person department should not require a full-time administrator,” he said.
• Reducing parking-enforcement officer to a part-time job, April 1 to Oct. 1. “People are going to say that’s revenue you’re losing,” said Booan. “In January, February, March, the only revenue we are generating is from our own residents.”
By the timetable set by law, the proposed budget must be acted on by the current Village Board, which has a majority of Booan allies. But the final budget will be approved by the new Village Board that takes office Monday, April 4, and includes three new trustees who ran on the Democratic ticket.
However, with new trustees Jim Dean, Walter Franck and Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch saying they plan to reach independent conclusions issue by issue, it remains to be seen how the board will line up on Booan’s first budget.
The mayor scheduled the first budget discussion with the trustees for 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, and said he invited the new trustees to sit in. (He also said he asked the new trustees to meet with him to discuss the business of the organizational meeting, to help ensure they will get the committee assignments they prefer.)
In the interview on the budget, the mayor said he is proposing to again use part of the surplus, although less than last year, to keep the tax rate steady. The current method of village accounting, he said, indicates the surplus is larger than it actually is – $1 million vs. $500,000. But he also learned that a surplus in the water fund can be used for general budget expenses.
In past years, department heads have submitted budget proposals to the Village Board, and trustees have gone through the document line by line.
This time, the mayor asked the department heads to set their own priorities, but the result was “in the double-digits.” He pared it once, then again, to keep the tax rate at $4.63 per $1,000 valuation.
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| Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal Mayor Joe Booan examines the deterioration of Susquehanna Avenue, one of the three streets in the village he says most need reconstruction, along with Beaver and Delaware. |
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