Taxes to decrease
Berne proposes $2M budget
BERNE Bernes preliminary budget for 2008 totals $1.95 million, with about $737,000 to be raised from taxes.
Supervisor Kevin Crosier said taxes will decrease by 1 percent due to the towns assessed value.
The towns tentative budget, drafted by Crosier, was approved at the October town board meeting, after some council members objected to the supervisors not giving raises to the towns part-time officials. Crosier said he hadnt heard any objections at the town boards budget workshop earlier in the week.
Crosier, a Democrat, was elected on the Republican line; he is not up for re-election in November. The other town board members are all Democrats. Councilman James Hamilton is seeking re-election.
The board adopted the towns tentative budget, making it the preliminary plan, after William Conboy, the towns attorney, said changes can still be made to the preliminary budget before Nov. 20, the date budgets must be submitted to the state.
Hamilton, who requested another workshop to discuss highway expenses, told The Enterprise, "I don’t feel that’s the appropriate time to make changes."
In 2007, taxes increased 20 percent, or 80 cents, per $1,000, with Berne residents paying $4.71 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
If the preliminary spending plan is approved, residents in 2008 will pay $4.64 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Total appropriations for 2007 amount to $1.87 million; in 2008, appropriations will total $1.95 million, a 4-percent increase.
A public hearing on the budget will be held on Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
The 2007 budget was not approved by Crosier, who favored consolidating the towns highway department with the countys department of public works, and, last year, included a merger plan in his draft of the budget.
In a workshop last fall, officials shaved a 28-percent tax-levy increase down to 20-percent, cutting funds requested by the highway superintendent.
For the past three years, Crosier told The Enterprise, hes proposed tax decreases from 1 to 3 percent each year, and, had the plan which included the consolidation been approved, the town would have seen more tax cuts.
Berne will pay $56,200 for its paramedic program in 2008. Crosier, who helped establish the program, called the cost "an absolute bargain." The county-wide program, supported by individual municipalities, pays for a staffed fly car with paramedics to supplement services provided by local ambulance squads.
"That’s the true cost of that service"You couldn’t do a paramedic program in the town of Berne for that," Crosier said.
The Berne library, budgeted $27,500 in 2007, will receive an additional $800. Officials and library trustees have discussed two locations the Masonic Hall in the Berne hamlet and the town park on its outskirts to relocate the small, free library, which is cramped for space in the town hall.
"Because we were proactive in the past, health insurance premiums have stayed relatively low," Crosier told The Enterprise. The town’s liability insurance has remained flat, he said. "The things we did early have paid off," Crosier said.
The only increases in the 2008 budget, Crosier said, are for machinery in the highway department, and the salaries of part-time clerks, union personnel, and two full-time town officials.
Salaries
Part-time elected and appointed officials will not receive raises in 2008, Crosier announced at the town boards October meeting.
The town’s clerk, Patricia Favreau and the superintendent of highways, Raymond Storm, whom the supervisor called "full-time town officials," will receive about 4-percent more than they earned this year.
Favreau will earn $35,800 and Storm will earn $47,750.
At the meeting, Hamilton and Councilman Joseph Golden asked for further discussion on the budget and said they would take a cut in their pay. Council members are slated for salaries of $3,225 in 2008. Both asked for another budget workshop to be held with more discussion before the tentative plan was adopted. Councilman Wayne Emory said he hadnt known the board was slated to adopt the towns tentative budget.
Hamilton and Crosier disagree over which town officials will see raises in 2008.
Both Favreau and Storm earn their living performing their town jobs, Crosier said. State legislators havent received a raise in 10 years, he said, and part-time elected and appointed town officials received raises last year. In 2008, the zoning board of appeals and planning board clerks and the supervisors bookkeeper will see slight increases, according to the preliminary budget.
Hamilton told The Enterprise he thinks all of the towns officials do a good job, and the method by which raises were determined was arbitrary.
When determining which officials receive raises, Hamilton said, "I’d like to see more consistency."
Some who work part-time for the town have a couple of part-time jobs or are retired, he said, adding that he doesnt agree with the reasoning that, if someone is a part-time employee, then he or she does not need money as much as someone who works full-time.
"They can probably use the money," he said.
In 2008, assessors and planning and zoning board of appeals members will not see increases in their salaries.
If the preliminary budget is approved, Berne officials will earn the following salaries in 2008:
Supervisor, $12,900;
Council members, $3,225;
Town clerk, $35,800;
Town justices, $7,450; and
Highway superintendent, $47,750.
