BERNE —   According to the tentative budget prepared by Town Supervisor Kevin Crosier for the coming year, the town tax will go down for the fourth straight year in 2017.

The budget calls for total expenditures of $2,250,673, down slightly from $2, 268, 473 in 2016.

The tax rate will decrease from $4.65 percent per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $4.50,  making the effective tax rate 3 percent lower than it was in 2016.

The lower rate is made possible by a small upward tick in the town’s  assessed evaluation from $167.00 million to almost $167.60 million, as well as  by some economies that offset modest raises for some town employees. But also responsible for the low Berne tax rate is a large draw-down from the town’s  reserves that helps fund operations, a regular practice in Berne and other towns.

Berne has a large unappropriated fund balance in reserve upon which it can draw. Supervisor Crosier says the town likes to keep reserves at a high level as “an insurance policy in time of disaster.”  He says that some towns were “financially devastated” after Tropical Storm Irene because their reserves were too low.

As of now, Crosier said, the reserves stand at $951,000 in the town’s general fund and $1,443,055 in the highway fund.  From those funds, a total of $367,000 is proposed to go toward town expenses in 2017.  Similar amounts were assigned from them in the 2015 and 2014 budgets.

“Every municipality, “ Crosier says, “uses these funds to balance their budget.”

Money from these funds assigned to the annual budget may be only partially expended, Crosier says.  At the end of the budget year, unspent money goes back into the reserve funds and into the capital projects fund, which is money set aside for big-ticket projects in the future.

Crosier said $200,ooo — $100,00 from each fund — was set aside for the capital projects fund at the end of the 2015 budget year. Contributions to that fund are made each year for future projects. “For example,” Crosier said, “down the road a new highway garage may be needed.”

While school districts are required by law to have no more than 4 percent of their budgets in unappropriated fund balances, towns are advised by the state comptroller only to have a “reasonable amount.”

Crosier says Berne remains debt-free.  The debt service line in the budget is  blank.

Cost control

“We’re trying to keep the tax levy even, avoid a roller coaster,” Crosier said. “There’s no magic bullet...it’s a bunch of little things.”

“We’re always looking for efficiencies,” he said. “The idea is to improve services for less money.”

He says that operating the town transfer station costs less now — $103,00—than it did in 1998 — $111,500.  A new more efficient facility replaced the old transfer station in 2004.

A $300,000 salt shed now under construction is being paid for by a grant from Albany County.  The town and the county highway department will share the shed, which will have a capacity of 2,000 tons of road salt.  The town borrowed money to fund the shed but will be reimbursed by the county.

Crosier maintains that the town has been singularly successful in obtaining grant monies.

Town and highway

More than half of the town’s total outlay of $2.25 million is earmarked for the highway department.

The tentative budget contains raises for town hall employees but none for highway workers and none for the highway superintendent.  Crosier and Highway Superintendent Randy Bashwinger locked horns earlier this year over a shift to 10-hour, four-day work week for the highway crew, decreed by Bashwinger.

The unionized highway department employees have rejected the town’s offer of a 2 percent yearly raise over the life of a three-year contract, and continue to work under the old contract.

An elected official, Bashwinger works full-time and is paid a salary of $52,220.

Bashwinger had put in  for a 2017 raise, but none is  forthcoming despite all the praise the town board has accorded his department for its work, he says.

The second-highest paid official is town Clerk Anita Clayton who, after a 3-percent raise this year, will receive  $41,937; she also works full-time.

“People who haven’t seen any raise for a while,” says Crosier, “will see one in this budget.”  The tax collector, supervisor,  justice, assessors, attorney, senior account clerk, and town board members  will also receive a 3-percent raise. For Crosier, who works part-time, that means a raise of $510, for a total salary of $19,226. Each of the four town board members would see their annual pay increase to $3,850.

Senior Account Clerk Andrea Borst,  the highest paid town employee, will receive $53,790.

Borst keeps the books for the town. She is a “very effective watchdog for us,” Crosier said, crediting her with  reducing the cost of highway department uniforms by 40 percent, and instituting automated timekeeping that records “the true cost of labor,” making possible a lower premium for workers compensation insurance.

Both she and Crosier say  the Municipal  Information Systems accounting program, which the town purchased in 2013 , has enabled improvements in  cost-analysis and control.

Projected revenue for town operations come from two main sources: $460, 500 from property tax and a projected $400,000 sales tax distribution from the county. Highway department revenue  relies on  the same sources:  $303,000 from property taxes and  $410,00 from the county sales tax distribution. Another $183,000 is derived from the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program, known as CHIPs.

Dipping into the general fund balances  provides the rest of what’s needed to pay for projected expenditure levels for both the town and its highway department.

The town’s still-developing nature preserve and cultural center, Switzkill Farm — formerly called the Game Farm Road property — gets its own code in this year’s budget and a $9,830 appropriation. Last year, it was folded into the town park category.

“Residents wanted to know what the cost of Switzkill Farm is,” Crosier said. “So we decided to break it out separately.”  Projected 2017 revenues for Switzkill Farm — mainly from facility rentals — are $5,000.

Crosier’s current 4-year term runs until the end of 2018.  But he has been town supervisor and its chief fiscal officer for many years: from 2002 to 2010, then again in 2012 — when he stepped in to complete the third year of supervisor George Gebe’s term —  and again  in 2013 after winning an election to complete Gebe's term.  The retired Albany firefighter and Berne native has been town supervisor for a total of almost 13 years.

A budget workshop was held Monday and “only minor changes were made,” Crosier says.  After this preliminary budget is approved by the town board at its meeting tonight, the budget will go to the State Comptroller’s Office for review.  A public hearing on the budget will be held at the town hall on Nov. 9, with final approval by the town board to come at its regular November meeting.