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Southern Ulster Times, Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Hansut responds to Lloyd’s state audit
By MARK REYNOLDS
[email protected]
At last week’s Lloyd Town Board
meeting, Supervisor Paul Hansut
commented on a story reported in the
Southern Ulster Times concerning an
audit that was recently completed by the
NYS Office of the Comptroller on the
town’s financial condition.
Hansut said the Town Board was
criticized by the state in a published story,
entitled, “State Audit Rips Lloyd’s Fund
Balance.”
“A great headline of how the state is
ripping the Town Board for their fund
balance [but] when you read the story, I
didn’t find much to it, that’s my opinion,”
he said.
Hansut said starting in 2012 the board
began compiling their budgets in a very
conservative manner.
“A budget, in my opinion, is an
estimation of what things are going
to cost you in the following year and
the revenues you’re going to be getting
in, in the following year,” he said. “We
overestimated some expenses and we
underestimated some revenues. It’s
awfully hard as a Town Board to sit and
look into a crystal ball to figure out what
the sales tax is going to be. Since 2014
we’ve done very good with the sales tax;
we’ve been over, which brought the fund
balance up. The mortgage tax is another
one; you can never figure out what the
mortgage tax is going to be.”
Hansut said the Audit covered from
2014 to the present.
“They went through our payroll, they
went through our retirement and they
went through every aspect of the finances
Marlborough granted
rail crossing
Continued from page 1
crossing must be submitted to the DOT’s
Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety
section for review and that warning
devices installed at the new crossing
must meet all applicable Federal, State
and railroad safety standards.
When constructing the crossing, all
permits must be obtained and the work
must be done by August 30, 2022 or the
DOT will rescind their approval and no
further action by the department will
be taken.
It was noted that improvements
should be made to the original entrance,
with the addition of lights, gates,
“ I ’m ecstatic after all
these years, pushing,
pushing and pushing.
We’ve been tying to do
this since we purchased
the property in 2009.”
AL LANZETTA
TOWN SUPERVISOR
warning devices beyond the existing
single bell and pavement markings.
Supervisor Al Lanzetta said he was
guided through the process by Greg
Hart, Regional Rail Coordinator for
the Department of Transportation,
that brought the matter for making
modifications to the existing crossing
to a hearing.
“I had to justify to the Department
of Transportation and I had letters
suggesting where the crossing should
be,” Lanzetta said.
Lanzetta said the recent favorable
letter points out that the town, “is in
pretty good shape. I think there are
a few things that we have to iron out
but I think we’ll get a crossing. I’m
ecstatic after all these years, pushing,
pushing and pushing. We’ve been tying
to do this since we purchased the [park]
property in 2009.”
Lanzetta has said many times that
the town has an easement to cross the
railroad tracks.
“That’s our right, it’s deeded. We
looked into that before we bought the
property,” he said. “They can’t close
that off and not allow us to walk across
those railroad tracks, but now we’re
going to move [it] a little south.”
of the Town of Lloyd and they came up
with that we don’t have an un-expended
fund balance policy, and we don’t. We’re
going to do it now,” he said.
The board will be reviewing a state
publication called “Developing An
Effective Fund Balance Policy,” to ensure
they are adhering to the state’s guidelines.
Hansut took issue with the audit’s
finding that Lloyd, “is hording $4 million
and doing all these things with all this
money and we’ve overtaxed; We’ve never
gone over the property tax cap, ever in
seven and a half years. One year we
raised taxes 0.56 and in that year we
had some surplus. I think that’s pretty
good guys and ladies.” Hansut said the
$4 million has been whittled down since
2014 and used for various purposes and
is not being horded as the audit claims.
He also noted that each councilperson is
given a Supervisor’s report on finances
at the first meeting of the month for their
review.
Hansut pointed out that the town
does not have to borrow $305,650 for the
upcoming infrastructure project around
Town Hall or bond it that would cost an
additional $80,000.
“I think that’s pretty good and I think
we’ve done a great job as a board with the
budget. We’ve not always agreed and we
argue, but when it comes down to a point
of surpluses over deficits, get me the
surplus any day of the week.”
Hansut said Phase III of the Rail Trail
West project required a 20% local share,
estimated between $500,000 to $600,000. The
town did not have to borrow this amount,
“because we ran a fiscally responsible
budget and we had un-expended fund
balance; I am not apologizing to anyone
for that. We did not raise taxes 15% when
our expenses were at 2% to horde 13%.
That didn’t happen. It was 2% and we had
money left over every single year and I
think we did a very, very good job with
that.”
Hansut said New York State likes
to borrow money, saying this provides
transparency for taxpayers.
“It may be transparent but it’s not
fiscally prudent,” he said.
Hansut said the state had to find
something wrong in the town but in light
of the state’s current financial picture, he
said Lloyd is in pretty good shape.
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