WESTERLO —  The preliminary $2.8 million town budget does not ignore “the elephant in the room,” says town board member William Bichteman.

He is also chairman of a town Building Committee that has been working toward voter approval on Nov. 8 of $887,000 in borrowing to preserve the town hall while rebuilding its interior to make it more functional. But voters could shoot down the proposal.

The proposed budget tries to prepare for either contingency.

In fact, town planning in general is in a state of suspension until after Nov. 8 when voters will deliver their verdict.

The budget moved from tentative to preliminary at a special town board meeting Oct. 27. Until then the budget had not been made available for public review, although state law requires the supervisor to make the tentative budget available to the town board, and the public, no later than Oct. 5.

A town board meeting on Nov. 9 will decide on next moves , including whether to go over the state-mandated tax cap. The current budget proposal — which will receive a 7 p.m. public airing just before Wednesday’s board meeting — calls for a 1.03-percent increase in the town’s tax levy for 2017, which exceeds this year’s state-set cap of .68 percent. The state law calls for a levy limit of 2 percent or the rate of inflation, set by the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less, making this year’s cap .68 percent.

 Foreseen consequences

If voters authorize the bond issue, a $100,000 appropriation on the building-capital-outlay line in the proposed budget will remain unspent, or could be redirected to other building needs, says Bichteman.

But if the referendum fails to pass,  the $100,000 will be put toward immediate town hall needs like replacing  the 70-year-old heating system and bringing  the former elementary school  up to codes, the town says.  The heating system is still working, says Town Supervisor Richard Rapp, but  it requires frequent attention and repair.

Delaware Engineering, the firm the town has been using to plan and estimate the  building renovations, has told the town that replacing the heating system can be an à la carte item but that the new boiler would have to be larger if the referendum menu of everything-at-once fails to appeal to voters. That’s because the menu includes insulating the building for better heat retention and lower heating costs.

On the other hand, if the bond referendum does pass, $40,000 in the budget earmarked to pay Delaware Engineering for its further involvement in the project, will  get spent. Delaware Engineering has been receiving consulting and design fees over the last three years as plans have been developed, altered, and reset to more modest dimensions.

Bichteman says that the firm was paid  $33,413 through 2014 and 2015 to develop a more ambitious plan for a new highway garage, as well as town hall renovation. That proposal got nixed by voters in September 2015.

Delaware Engineering  has continued to be involved after the town lowered its sights to accomplish only the town-hall renovation.  Bichteman says the town, this year, has paid Delaware Engineering “an additional $8,655...for developing options, cost-estimate comparisons and floor plans before entering into a contract for the actual contract drawings and specifications for the renovations in the amount of $60,000. Of the contract amount, DE has been paid $6,568 to date with an additional $21,307 invoiced and awaiting.”

Flexible budgeting

Rapp, who is nearing the 50-year mark in his town service, says he views budgets as   “guidelines,” with some flexibility necessarily  built into them.

The town’s budgeting for capital projects has seen both expansion and contraction as plans have changed in recent years. Prior budgets had also earmarked funds for replacing the leaking highway- garage roof but that project was judged to be too costly, says Rapp, once estimates were received. Money earmarked for a new roof went back into the general fund, he says.  Temporary repairs, guaranteed for three years, says Rapp, were made instead. (See questions raised about this in a letter to the editor from Westerlo resident Dianne Sefcik.)

Compared with the 2016 budget, the proposed spending plan calls for about $200,000 more in spending — $2.81 million against $2.6 million this fiscal year. The town tax rate will increase by about 1 percent, says Rapp.

The town property tax rate is exceptionally high because many property assessments have remained unchanged since 1950, making for low tax bills for long-time residents and not-so-low for newer residents with more up-to-date assessments.

Adjustments can still be made to the proposed budget after the public hearing and might be made at next week’s town board meeting.

Bichteman says the board’s “intention is not to go over the cap.” But he adds, “we can’t bury our heads in the sand,” referring to the work needed at the town hall even if the referendum doesn’t pass.

The Westerlo tax levy has exceeded the cap twice in recent years.  To do so this year will once again require a supermajority of the town board, four  votes in favor rather a simple majority of three, to pass a local law to allow the levy cap to be exceeded. According to the guidelines set out by the Department of Taxation and Finance, the town board was to have passed that local law by Oct. 1.

In the details

Revenues — from town taxes, fees, and the town’s share of the Albany County Sales Tax  — are projected to remain the same.  The proposed budget shows a contribution of  $150,000 from the fund balance — the town’s reserves —to the general fund and  $55,000 to the highway fund. Town officials say the fund balance stood at $140,000 at the end of 2015.

The spending plan calls for the town supervisor to be paid $15,000, the council members to be paid $3,625 each, the town clerk/tax collector to be paid $42,260, the superintendent of highways to be paid $60,030, and the town justices to be paid $11,000 each.

The payment to  the town attorney remains unchanged at $20,400, plus health insurance.

The line for parks in the budget calls for $70,000 to be spent in 2017. This includes payment of $43,000 to a highway department employee who does park maintenance and mowing in season and snow removal in winter at town hall and in town parks, says Rapp. The parks budget also includes  $20,000 in possible capital improvements and $7,500 for contracted services.

Medical insurance will take a lot more town money in 2017 if projected premium increases hold —  from $104,306 to $130,00 for town-hall employees and from $120,779 to $170,779 for highway-department  employees.

Current town indebtedness shows up mainly in the highway department budget in the form of money borrowed to buy two trucks, one of which will be paid off this year, says Rapp.

For the removal of asbestos from the town hall basement, the budget provides $80,ooo, partially covered by  money remaining from a grant received in 2011 to enable the town to buy the old school that is now the town hall. If full renovation of the town hall gets underway, additional asbestos remediation on the building’s main level will be required. That work is included in the proposed  $887,000 bond issue.

The highway department portion of the budget contains some substantial increases. It breaks labor into two categories: road maintenance and snow removal. The budget appropriates the same amounts for each: $180,000, an increase of $10,000 over last year’s allocations. Long-term forecasts predict more snow this winter.

Rapp says he agrees with Bichteman that the town cannot further delay bringing the town hall up to codes, even if the referendum fails.

An estimate of $300,00 for such work has been suggested and that money would have to be borrowed, Rapp says.

Rapp  says he looks forward to the day when a new heating system means no more late- night calls because the boiler needs attention from the service man the town calls upon.

The public hearing for the budget is scheduled for Nov. 9 at 7 p.m., to be followed by a town board meeting at which decisions like whether to go over the tax cap will likely be made, in the  light of the referendum results.

Also  on the hearing agenda will be the library budget, which calls for a $552 increase in salary  to $50,726; the museum budget which remains at $12,400; the Lighting Fund, increased by $3,000, to $10,268; the water fund and ambulance funds, steady at $73,000 and $100,000 respectively. The fire protection fund budget, too, is unchanged from 2016, at $225,863.

Corrected on Dec. 12, 2016: Incorrect salaries for town officers presented in the 2017 budget were replaced with correct salaries.