Wallkill Valley Times Mar. 30 2016

TIMES WALLKILL VALLEY Vol. 34, No 13 3 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016 Bushmen win opener Page 48 Hard decision Walden may override state tax cap By TED REMSNYDER Every budget process requires some hard decisions, and the Village of Walden Board of Trustees will consider legislation at its next meeting to possibly over- ride the state tax levy limit. At the board’s meeting on April 5th, held one day before the first of five budget sessions the group will hold next month, a public hearing will be held for Local Law 4 of 2016, a measure that would allow the village to 3 ONE DOLLAR STEM project Page 35 www.WallkillValleyTimes.net override the limit. According to state law, local governments may override the tax levy limit only by first passing a local law that Continued on page 3 Easter Bunny visits Wallkill Rosanna Rossi Jacob DiBlanca, 2 and Logan Thomas, 2 with moms, Saturday, at the Wallkill Lions Easter Egg Hunt on the lawn of the Wallkill Library. More photos on pages 24 and 25. Maybrook overrides tax cap By RACHEL COLEMAN “This was a tough budget to do,” said Mayor Dennis Leahy. On Monday the Maybrook Village Board voted unanimously to override the property tax cap, this year set at less than one percent. The mayor subsequently presented a budget with an increase of 2.9 percent. “It’s hard to maintain what we have to maintain with what they say we can maintain it with,” said Village Trustee Jim Barnett. It was noted that other local municipalities are making the same move this year as increasing costs such as retirement and health insurance eat up the budget. The mayor’s budget will use $150,000 of appropriated fund balance to reduce the tax rate (half what was used last year). “We are running a pretty tight budget,” said Mayor Leahy. The mayor explained that they have trimmed away everything they can while still keeping services, making necessary improvements to infrastructure and being fair to village employees. The budget features increases of $20,000 for new park equipment in Danny Meyer Park, $6,000 for court security, and $20,812 to the police department. Trustee Robert Pritchard pointed out that this is the first budget following the decision of the village police officers to form a union last year. He stated that the village could have faced a much higher increase, but the mayor and officers did a good job. Continued on page 4 SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL