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Putnam Valley Town Board to Perform Radical Surgery on Proposed Budget
Reducing the increase to 11% is the goal
by Edward Paul Greiff
At the first Putnam Valley 2008 budget work session, held October 10, 2007, Councilman Bob Tendy started the ball rolling by saying he believes that if they try they can get the budget down to 11%.
Councilwoman Wendy Whetsel said that all she heard when she recently spoke to many of Putnam Valley residents is, 'our taxes are too high - you need to cut them.'
Councilman Dan Ricci and Councilwoman Priscilla Keresey agreed with their colleagues, saying that they need to tighten their belts at least for this one year in order to get the town back on financial stability without hurting the residents.
Supervisor Sam Davis agreed up to a point and said he would also try to find additional ways to trim the budget but warned that in certain areas, if they didn't spend the money now it will cost more in future years to do the same thing.
The heated budget debate that ensued was at times argumentative and emotional but as Councilman Tendy later commented to his fellow Board members, "I do not question your sincerity, we all sincerely want what is best for the town, we just have different opinions."
Councilwoman Whetsel offered the first surgical cut when she looked directly at Highway Superintendent Earl Smith and recommended a $200,000 cut; $600,000 to $400,000.
Smith responded that instead of blacktopping six miles of road they will only blacktop four miles of roads. He said he would do what he can with the money he has. "If we have a mild winter we just may luck out," he said.
The next budget issue required adding funds previously cut back into the budget. When Supervisor Sam Davis submitted his 2008 Town Budget to the Town Board on September 28, 2007 he eliminated the CSEA $50,000 salary plus benefits for the salaried position of "Community Media Coordinator" (Videographer) and replaced it with a $17,000 contractual fee for a person to video tape the meetings.
Councilman Dan Ricci provided the litany of events that led up to the signing of a contract with cablevision and has led to the Town's two cable television channels. He argued that, "we have been trying hard to provide open government for the town and that it was not right to deprive the Putnam Valley residents with that privilege they have become accustomed too."
Councilman Bob Tendy argued that he has not seen any other town do what Maryann Arrien, the Town's current Community Media Coordinator, does with the video she provides.
Arrien explained that most people are not aware of all the services she provides at a very nominal cost because she lives in this town and would like to see what she does as a role model for others to follow. The public sees her videotaping the Town's meetings and other events as requested. What they don't see is all the hours of editing these tapes, the logistics of providing finished tapes to the Library, her creation of streaming video for Channel 8 so non Cablevision subscribers can view programs on the web site, her creation of content to be shown on the Town's two Cablevision Channels 18 and 20, and above all the technical operations she performs to keep all the equipment functioning.
The Town Board continued to go through each line item, questioning everything. There was always an argument why something should not be trimmed. But there was also the realization that they had to find the cuts somewhere if they were to achieve their goal of reducing the budget down to an 11 percent tax increase.
The decision to no longer have two lawyers after the December 31st was agreed upon and set the salary for the remaining lawyer at $80,000 for the year.
The Photovoltaic project for Town Hall was removed from the budget as were other items.
When Councilman Bob Tendy suggested eliminating the $30,000 allocated for Chazin Planners he touched off an explosion that had Master Plan Committee members Tom Carano, and Dave Spittal fuming. They both said that without Chazin the Master Plan would never have gotten done and now that they are, "this close to completing it (Tom Carano held his thumb and forefinger a quarter inch apart) you want to eliminate them, no way."
Tendy replied that they were just exploring every possibility. He then made a suggestion that each Board member review the budget and take ten percent off each of the line item totals and then when they get back together they can try and nickel and dime the budget.
Director of Finance Maryann DeSantis said that with some of the cuts that had been suggested, the budget increase will have been reduced to 16 percent. There is more work to be done to achieve to Board's goal of an 11% increase.
The next two public budget hearing meetings were set for Friday, October 19, 2007 at 7pm in Town Hall and for November 7th.
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