BERNE — The supervisor here is not supporting the town’s $2.1 million budget proposal for next year, which calls for a 28-percent increase in taxes.
"It’s not my budget," said Supervisor Kevin Crosier.

If adopted by the board on Nov. 8, the budget would add $1.09 per $1,000 of assessed value for Berne taxpayers, who paid $3.90 this year.

The biggest increase is in the highway department, up $135,000 from $850,000 this year.

Crosier said that, as far as he knew, the tax increase is the largest in the town’s history.

Crosier said he has a vision for the town, and one idea he had was the merger between the Berne Highway Department and the Albany County Department of Public Works. (See related story.)

He said the two departments can work more efficiently than one, and that, by merging the two departments and lowering taxes, the taxpayer wins. The other four Berne council members, who are all Democrats, did not support the merger; Crosier ran twice on the Republican ticket.

Councilman Joseph Golden told The Enterprise Wednesday that, during the process of creating the budget, board members go through the proposed budget asking for suggestions.

The process, he said, is not done by vote.
Golden said that the merger was hypothetical, as are all budget numbers. Golden said that he has never seen a budget where everyone says, "Fine."
"There’s are always some additions and deletions," he said.
When asked about whether he thought the supervisor opposing the budget was odd, he said, "I don’t think it’s odd. It’s America." Golden later said "interesting" a better word to describe it.

Golden said that he thought everyone proposing the merger to be well-intentioned, but said that he thought the whole idea of the merger to be premature.
"We wouldn’t have any idea, fiscally, where we would be," he said. He also said he thought the economics of the merger were unclear.
When asked about what he felt townspeople thought of the proposed merger, Golden responded, "I can’t speak for everyone. I don’t know how many are for or against." He added, "I think a lot of it has to do with community control."

In 2006, Crosier said, the amount of money needed to be raised from taxes is $612,850. The tentative 2007 budget, he said, calls for about $800,000 to be raised from taxes.
"If you go by my budget, and the merger goes through, $602,164 would need to be raised," he told The Enterprise last week, implying that taxes would go down rather than up.

Health insurance, Crosier said, is up 12 percent from this year, and the seven highway workers will receive a 3-percent raise.

Town employees will receive a 4-percent raise.

Crosier said that the town will have a $16,000 charge back from the county for the federal Help America Vote Act, which requires new voting machines.

He also said that New York state is 52 percent higher in property taxes than the second highest state.
"We can no longer do things as we always have," Crosier said. "We have to look at ways to save taxpayers’ money."

The tentative budget was approved last Wednesday. A public hearing prior to approval of the final budget is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.