Amenia budget passes, but just barely

AMENIA — There were differences of approach that remained unresolved up until the very end, but with a vote of 3-2, the Town Board managed to pass the 2010 budget last Thursday during its Nov. 19 board meeting.

Supervisor Wayne Euvrard and Councilmen Norm Cayea and Joel Pelkey voted for the budget. Councilwomen Vicki Doyle and Victoria Perotti voted against it.

“I believe this is a very fair budget to the taxpayers and to the town employees,� Euvrard said after the meeting.

Several areas were points of controversy throughout the budget process. First were salaries. Doyle, supported by several vocal residents, wanted to see town employee wages frozen during 2010.

In what could be an indication of the how the town will run next year, Councilwoman-elect Darlene Riemer, who will replace Pelkey, said she would have voted down the budget this year.

“I would strongly recommend freezing wages for all town employees,� she said. “If I were sitting at your table tonight, I would vote no.�

“I didn’t think it was fair and equitable,� Doyle said in an interview after the meeting. “If there was ever a year to freeze wages, this was it.�

Doyle estimated that approximately $20,000 would have been saved. Instead, the budget that passed approved a 3.5-percent raise for all highway department employees and a 3-percent raise for all town employees with the following exceptions: The supervisor received almost a 15-percent raise, the town grant writer received a 10-percent personal services line increase and the town clerk and deputy clerk’s salaries were frozen. The four remaining councilmen opted not to take a pay increase this year.

Several hours were also reduced: The town building inspector’s mileage allowance was cut and his hours dropped from 25 to 20 a week, while the building inspector secretary’s hours were cut from 20 to 16. The zoning administrator’s hours were also cut from 12 to 10.

The final budget will be a 9-percent increase for taxpayers, but as Euvrard was quick to point out, that number had started at about 30 percent.

Revenues are estimated to be down at least 30 percent, Perotti said, which was the main reason why it was such a difficult budget process.

Highway Superintendent Stan Whitehead remained unhappy with the budget, as he felt that more of the $185,000 in his fund balance should have gone toward a down payment on a new loader that the department needs to purchase. Instead, the board decided to put $30,000 toward a down payment on the loader and put another $30,000 in a capital fund toward future highway department equipment. Some of the fund balance, Whitehead argued and Euvrard acknowledged, was also used to offset the tax increase.

“I tried to work with every department as fair as I could,� Euvrard said, who added that currently the town is in an advantageous position to lock into favorable interest rates on new machinery.

“They know I run a good ship down here,� Whitehead said the week before the budget was passed. “Nobody could run this place cheaper than me. The tax increase is not because of the loader, it’s because of the way [the supervisor] is treating the highway department’s fund balance.�

Doyle said Whitehead was “absolutely� justified in being upset and felt the budget could have been handled differently. Euvrard replied by pointing out that the town’s General Fund decreased by $40,000, while the highway department’s appropriation have increase by $50,000.

Both Doyle and Perotti voted down the budget because they said they felt the town’s General Fund could have been trimmed more. Doyle felt that some programs were cut more harshly than others and she would have liked to have seen extracurricular items be given an equally frugal examination.

“It’s unfair for some of the programs and departments to cut back to bare bones while others continue at or above the 2009 level,� she said.

Perotti, on the other hand, said after the meeting that she approaches the budget like she did when she was in the business sector, by looking at each position and department line by line.

“You don’t look at individual people, you look at the position and the activity to see if you can balance the hours with the salaries,� she said.

Pelkey and Cayea could not be reached in time for comment by early press deadlines.

The budget is passed, but Perotti stressed that running the town was an ongoing process that would be handled week by week.

“You don’t do a budget and then forget about it,� she said. “You get monthly activity reports so you can see how much revenue is coming in. Those reports get studied every month. You move [funds accordingly] by resolution. The budget is an ongoing process and it’s looked at constantly so you can adequately run your business.�