Ogden residents will see tax increase

In a meeting attended by over forty residents of Ogden, Town Supervisor Gay Lenhard and Kathleen Saville, Finance Director, reported that taxes in the town, including the village of Spencerport, will be forced to rise almost 4 percent for 2004. State mandates have forced the tax increase. The Town of Ogden has not had a tax increase in four years.

The town has taken steps to try to cushion the blow to taxpayers. Lenhard informed the audience that without the changes the town is making, the tax increase would have been substantially higher.

In the meeting, held on September 8, Finance Director Saville presented reasons why the increase is necessary. The largest, other than a sluggish economy and lower-than-anticipated revenue from user fees, is the state mandated payment into the state public employee retirement fund.

The state public employee retirement fund bill was $37,340 for 2003. However, the payment due for 2004 skyrocketed to an unprecedented $395,780. Without this increase, town spending would have increased only 1 percent for 2004, but with this bill it will rise to 6.4 percent according to Saville.

Town officials report that one of the ways they were able to keep the tax increases to a minimum was by using the reserve fund. Although the reserve wasn't enough to cover all of it, it did help considerably. According to Saville, if Ogden didn't have this reserve, they would have had to require much stiffer increases, such as residents in the nearby Town of Gates, where taxes are going up close to 10 percent.

The increase in terms of actual dollars to residents means that a homeowner who has a property worth $108,000 faces an increase in town taxes of $22.68. Village residents pay a different tax rate and their increase for the same amount of property would be $14.04.

Town officials are making additional changes to try and help defray costs to the taxpayers. Beginning in January 2004, all town employees will have to contribute to their health benefits. In the past, town employees hired before 1997 had their health care benefits paid in full. Those hired after 1997 contributed 10 percent. Effective in January, all town employees will have to contribute to their health care benefits. That percentage will increase again in 2005.

Many members of the audience at the budget public hearing complained about the small percentage employees would pay for health care, charging that most workers today pay sometimes as much as 50 percent of their own medical insurance costs. Saville agreed that it may not sound like much, but she insisted that baby steps are what is required at this point. Going forward she anticipates town employees will be paying a higher percentage as healthcare costs continue to rise.

Town residents complained loudly about the bill from New York State and argued that everyone lost money in the stock market after 9/11 and they should not have to foot the bill for these costs. Lenhard reiterated that this is completely out of her hands, and all towns are in the same boat. It is a state mandate and nothing can be done to change it; local officials' hands are tied completely. All she can do is what she's been doing, trying to keep the costs passed on to residents to a minimum while still providing and maintaining the current level of town services, she said.