Berne residents have been through a week of whiplash.

Their town’s budget for next year became public this week well past the state-set deadline and has, according to Dennis Palow, the supervisor who drafted it, since been radically modified.

The first proposal had a 19-percent tax increase, well over the levy limit, raising serious, unanswered questions about how it could be implemented without a required supermajority on its town board.

The second proposal stays under the 2-percent tax cap but cuts a line for the county’s ambulance service, which Palow incorrectly believes will still answer calls without payment.

Here’s a guide to the budget rollercoaster ride Berne residents have been forced to endure: At the tail end of October, the supervisor’s tentative budget for 2025 was finally made public.

According to state law, a town’s tentative budget is supposed to be public when it is submitted to the town clerk on Sept. 30 and then it is to be submitted to the town board on Oct. 5.

Berne has not had a functioning town board since three of the five members — all five ran on the Republican ticket — abruptly and simultaneously quit on Aug. 13.

Palow says he submitted his tentative budget to the clerk on time but what good does that do if the public cannot see it? How does that serve the residents of Berne?

Our Hilltown reporter, Noah Zweifel, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for the budget, which was finally answered on Oct. 30.

Zweifel wrote a story that day on the proposed 19-percent increase, following a 750-percent increase the year before.

Letters to the editor in this week’s edition reflect residents’ varied views on that proposal.

Palow agreed to answer Enterprise questions on Monday for the first time in months although Zweifel had contacted him for each story.

Zweifel wrote two stories on Monday — one on a revised budget from Palow and the other giving Palow’s responses to the allegations raised by the three councilmen who quit.

The resigning councilmen — Al Thiem, Leo Vane Jr., and Joe Martin — had contended they hadn’t been allowed to see financial records they were entitled to and that two of them, attempting to see a draft of the 2025 budget, were kicked out of Town Hall by Palow, leading to their resignations.

Palow this week disputed the allegations, noting he had no authority to kick anyone out of the town hall and said that having three council members meeting would violate the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Palow told Zweifel this week that the three former board members have had full access to all the information that would normally be available to them, and sent The Enterprise copies of documents that show their signatures on abstracts and budget transfers.

When The Enterprise asked about transfers it had seen from the town’s bank statements that were not on the lists of transfers authorized by the board members, Palow said again that “they get that every month” and that the account clerk only moves money around as authorized.

Palow did not acknowledge that there were transfers unaccounted for. 

Martin had told The Enterprise earlier this year that he only became aware of those transfers when he looked at the bank statements directly.

He stood by the allegation when The Enterprise told him of Palow’s assertions this week.

“That stuff was never in our packets” distributed before the meetings, he said. 

Martin also stood by his version of events in August, referring The Enterprise to an audio recording he had shared where Palow told Martin he wouldn’t show him a “f-cking thing” about the town’s finances. 

In short, the finger-pointing and hostility continues and we ask again: How does that serve the residents of Berne?

Palow’s second budget proposal stays under the state-set 2-percent tax cap, which at first blush sounds like a good thing. It avoids the need for a supermajority vote — four out of five town board members — on a board that has only two members.

But the major cut that Palow made to keep the budget under the state-required levy limit is to not pay $170,000 to the Albany County Sheriff’s ambulance program, which the town relies on heavily in addition to the volunteer Helderberg Ambulance Squad.

Palow said that he won’t sign the contract with the county over disagreements about cost, and claimed that the county will provide ambulance service anyway.

However, county spokeswoman Mary Rozak told The Enterprise that there’s “no mandate that currently exists that this service needs to be provided by the county.”

The sheriff’s office can’t provide advanced life support service for free; it needs to pay the skilled workers that provide the service as well as pay for the ambulances and other needed equipment.

Sheriff Craig Apple told The Enterprise each municipality pays its “fair share of the operating costs” for county EMS based on census data.

He said he would “have to speak to the chair of the legislature and county executive on next steps but I would recommend withholding sales tax at a minimum.”

Albany County distributes sales tax to municipalities based on census data and, for small towns like Berne that don’t have a robust tax base, the sales-tax money funds a substantial portion of the budget.

Berne’s tentative 2025 budget is predicting at least $1.2 million in sales tax for its $2.7 million budget. 

So, with the current budget proposal, Berne would end up in worse financial shape going forward. We ask again: How does this serve the residents of Berne?

Berne has been wracked by financial problems since the GOP gained control of the board. Their strategy was to cut taxes, usually a sure bet with the electorate, drawing down the enormous fund balance built up over decades of Democratic governance.

According to the state comptroller’s most recent data, from 2023, the town reported that it had less than $55,000 in its unassigned fund balance that year, down from nearly $1 million just two years earlier.

A state comptroller’s audit in 2021 made 11 recommendations; only one was followed. Bills went unpaid and town funds were sometimes switched from one account to another without board members approving those transactions.

As Berne continues to flounder in uncharted territory, we call yet again on the state for oversight. Shouldn’t there be a mechanism by which the comptroller’s office could enforce its recommendations?

Shouldn’t the governor’s office, over several months, as stipulated by the state’s Town Law, be able to either call for a special election or make sensible appointments to the town board so it can function?

Looking for answers since none have been forthcoming from our state government, we turned to the Government Law Center at Albany Law School.

Richard Rifkin, the center’s legal director, said that monthly town board meetings as well as budget hearings are required by law.

Berne hasn’t had a board meeting for several months and there has been no hearing on the budget.

The citizens of Berne have been denied the chance for a public hearing on the budget for which they will be taxed. Their voices cannot be heard to shape their own future.

“I can’t imagine that a town supervisor can impose a budget on a town without board approval …,” said Rifkin. “I’ve never heard of anything quite like this. There may very well be nothing you can look at in law that would tell you what to do.”

What is clear, Rifkin said, is the town is not meeting the requirements laid out in law for how to approve a budget.

“The unanswered question,” Rifkin concluded, “is what happens when the town does not meet those legal requirements?”

We do not know the answer but we do know this mystery does not serve the residents of Berne.

In the 12 weeks since the mass defection, the governor’s office has not made a move. And, while Kathy Hochul announced at the outset of her tenure that her administration would be transparent, her office has provided no clue as to when or how the Berne government would be restored.

Zweifel made a Freedom of Information Law request to the governor’s office for any and all correspondence between the office and Berne and was told he’d have a response on Nov. 1. However, on Nov. 1, he was told additional time was required and to expect a response by Dec. 1.

Just after New York City’s mayor was indicted on federal charges, Hochul issued a statement that said in part, “New Yorkers deserve to know that their municipal government is working effectively, ethically and in the best interests of the people …. We must give New Yorkers confidence that there is steady, responsible leadership at every level of government.”

We cannot think of anyone who would disagree with this statement.

It should apply not just to the biggest city in the state but also to the smallest of towns. Steady, responsible leadership is indeed needed at every level of government.

Is a New Yorker who lives in a town, like Berne, with a population under 3,000 less important than a New Yorker who lives in a city of over 8 million?

Every New Yorker deserves to know that their municipal government is working effectively.

Town board members including the supervisor, the governor and her staff, and the state comptroller and his staff are all public servants.

How are they serving the residents of Berne?