$18M budget proposal
Guilderland holds the line



GUILDERLAND — If you can remember what your tax bill was this year, then you won’t have to get out your calculator next year, according to Supervisor Kenneth Runion.

With little over an $18 million budget proposed for 2007, Guilderland has again held the line on spending and continued to keep a lid on property taxes, according to the town’s preliminary budget numbers.
"It will be the same impact as the year before on the tax bill," Runion said while describing what he called a "smooth" budget process for 2007.

The tax rate for the town’s general fund will stay at 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

Despite facing unfunded mandates, increasing energy costs, rising retirement and benefits’ costs, and making standard pay increases, budget-framers say residents can expect to pay the same in taxes, even as the town increases services such as park improvements.

There are roughly 34,000 residents in the town of Guilderland.
"We’ve always been looking to create revenues to offset cost throughout the town," Runion told The Enterprise yesterday.
Describing it as a "maintenance budget," Runion said the town has also paid off some of its debt which has brought the debt service down.

Negotiating contracts to keep general increases in check and limiting over-time pay for police officers were some of the examples Runion used. Guilderland Police will receive a 4 percent pay increase in accordance with last year’s contract negotiation.

The town will use $2.5 million from its 2006 fund balance.

Expenses

Two budget workshops have been held and residents can attend a public hearing at Town Hall on Thursday, Nov. 9, after which, the town board will vote on adopting a spending plan.

The highway expenses will remain at this year’s total, coming in at $3.8 million; the water budget is slightly higher than this year at just under $2 million.
"The water rate is up about 1 percent and sewer went up maybe 1 or 2 percent," said Runion.

Other increases in the budget include the major lighting districts throughout the town. Runion attributed the hike to increasing energy cost and to National Grid determining that some additional lighting was needed.

As for the ever-increasing cost of the retirement funding, Runion said it comes as no surprise, but the town is attempting to keep it in check.
"Retirements and health-insurance costs continue to go up dramatically. We’re still at over a million dollars on retirement costs," said Runion. "They’re all up a little bit — retirement, health insurance, Social Security; they’ve all increased. It’s been the trend."

Health-insurance cost alone increased by 8 percent in next year’s budget, Runion said.

At a quick glance, the money budgeted for landfill services seems to be steadily growing. There was a $100,000 increase in the 2005 budget and more than a $70,000 increase in the 2006 budget. However, the costs are offset by the cash that trash creates, according to Runion; haulers pay a Capital Region consortium for recycled goods.

Also, he added, the town’s hazardous-waste and electronic-waste days can bring the cost up some.

Spending will decrease next year in purchasing and communications, public health expenses, human resource expenses, and culture and recreation funding.

Although the total general government budget will decrease $90,000 from this year, the general government budget increased nearly a quarter of a million dollars between the 2005 and 2006 budgets.
As for the county-wide "temporary" 1 percent sales tax increases that keeps getting renewed, Runion said it’s most likely here to stay.
"I think it’s something that’s going to be relatively permanent. I have advocated to the county legislature that it should just make it permanent," Runion told The Enterprise. "The county budget and all of the municipalities rely on that tax to run."

Albany County has also recently chosen optical scan voting machines for elections in 2007. The federal Help America Vote Act requires updated machines and New York State left the decision up to the individual counties. The unfunded mandate was pushed onto municipalities.

The new optical scan machines, which work similarly to standardized test scoring machines where voters fill in circles to mark their choices, will have to be used in all public elections including school elections in 2007. The federal government is buying the actual machines, but towns will have to pay for extra staffing for new procedures and election standards, as well as for storage and maintenance of the machines.

Guilderland will have to pay $275,561 next year to meet the mandate.
"The unfunded mandate was passed down by the federal government onto the state, who passed it on to the county, who passed it on to the towns. We have no one to pass it on to except for the taxpayer. We’re last in the chain of government," said Runion. "The lever machines are probably the most reliable machines, and they’ll be gone forever.