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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Walden set to override state tax cap
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work sessions and the final proposed figures are shaped.
The state has given the village a 0.32% tax cap
increase to work with this year, which only amounts to
a paltry $10,000 raise in the budget. The proposed budget
currently lists the levy increase at 4.6% with no use of the
village’s fund balance.
“Right now, the treasurer figured out that with the
tax cap that the state has given us, we can increase by
$10,000,” Walden Mayor Susan Rumbold said. “That’s
why we spoke about piercing the tax cap, because
when you look at such things like the health insurance
increasing $130,000, you have to think to yourself that
you have unfunded state mandates, you have contractual
obligations, you have increases in health benefits and
salaries and everything else. Trying to get to that point
where you’re only increasing by $10,000 is difficult.”
Some citizens at the meeting voiced their concerns
about the possibility of a tax hike. Local resident Edward
Bates, who came up short in his bid for election to the
board in March, contended during the public comment
portion of last Tuesday’s meeting that the village should
have announced the potential override of the tax cap
earlier.
“I think it would have been a little more open to
the public if this announcement would have been made
prior to the time it was,” he said. “To me it seemed a
little like a cover-up to have it happen a week after the
election instead of a week before the election. It may have
changed some outcomes. Please don’t do this (override
the cap). The burden on seniors is tough enough now, and
Gotta
love a
good
combo
this is only going to add to it. There was a surplus in last
year’s budget and now you’re asking for more.”
Rumbold says the timing of the process is entirely
up to the state, and the village provided details to the
public as soon as they were available. “The state gives us
a timeline in order to present the budget,” she said. “The
timeline happens to be every year after the election. The
manager and the treasurer has that amount of time to do
their facts and figures and prepare the budget and give it
to the trustees and then present it to the public. We don’t
set that timeline. The state does.”
Former Walden Mayor Becky Pearson asked the
board how it would proceed if the tax cap override does
not move forward. “We can cut anything, we can get
to 0% if we use fund balance,” Rumbold replied to the
query. “We would meet with the department heads and
discuss with them what they can cut. We have a lot of
departments. We could cut police officers, we could cut
DPW employees, there’s any number of things we could
cut. What we have to decide as a community is what do
we want to keep in place? I’d hope people will come to the
budget sessions so they could give us their opinions about
what they would prefer to do without.”
The mayor said that the board doesn’t take the
prospect of raising taxes lightly.
“The easy part isn’t raising taxes,” Rumbold said at the
meeting. “It’s never easy to tell people that they’re going
to have to pay more to live in the village.”
The meeting also saw public hearings for the village’s
2016 applications for the state Community Development
Block Grant and Environmental Facilities Corporation
programs. The CDBG grant would encompass a
maximum reward of $125,000 for a one-year project. A
sidewalk enhancement initiative has been chosen for
that application. No area has been pinpointed as of yet
for the potential work, which will see sidewalks