Brockport officials pass budget

Brockport officials pass budget

With less than four hours to spare before the May 1 deadline expired, officials in the Village of Brockport passed the budget by a margin of three-to-two.

The much-talked about budget started out with a proposed 11 percent tax rate increase. Under the final vote, board members ratified a spending plan that was pared down to 6.7 percent - until an additional $50,000 in legal fees was tacked on. Taxpayers in the village were then faced with a tax rate increase of 9.7 percent, which would have carried with it an average increase of $76 per house.

However, once Trustee David Wagenhauser's proposal to eliminate the sewer tax/fee from residents' bills was factored in, the final tax levy increase should amount to $15 to $30 annually per household.

"The elimination of the sewer fee doesn't change the tax rate but the elimination of the fee will effectively lower what each homeowner would pay annually," he said at the May 1 board meeting. "In the face of an 11 percent tax rate, I made the motion to repeal the sewer fee and to accept this budget."

Trustee Carrie Maziarz told those at the meeting that the additional $50,000 that was added to the line item for the village's legal fees at the last workshop is the equivalent of a three to four percent tax increase. "This is something that could have been saved (had the litigation not been initiated) but in light of an 11 percent increase, I second the motion to accept the budget as presented," she said.

"I feel we need more time as a board to go line-by-line over the budget," Trustee Mary Jo Nayman said. "We only had one full meeting, it was at the fire hall with the alarms ringing and it was hard to concentrate," she said, adding that she did take advantage of the opportunity to sit with Village Manager Ian Coyle and go over budget numbers. "Ian told us that the village budget relies on non-recurring revenues to deal with recurring expenses and that puts us in a precarious position. We rely too much on one time revenue sources."

Nayman and Trustee Maria Castaneda voted against the budget. Castaneda agreed that more time should have been spent in budget workshops. "We could have done a better job for the taxpayers," she said. "I brought forth several ideas that were not addressed - capping spending, a labor freeze, volunteer crossing guards or sharing in the price with the school district, issues with the police department (elimination of the first shift). I hope future boards take these ideas into consideration when looking at the budget. We need to look at ways to save taxpayer dollars."

Mayor Mort Wexler broke the tied vote on the budget by siding with Wagenhauser and Maziarz on the "yes" vote. "This was a difficult time whether in favor or opposed to the budget figures," he said. "Next year we will be scratching and crawling to get this done again. In order to maintain the services the people want, we have to maintain this level. If we cut services the taxes will go down."

During the village's public comment period, Betty Collins addressed the board prior to their budget vote and discussion. "It's a mistake to do away with the first shift of the police department or to consider expanding the number of officers," she said. "The expenses in the village are spiraling out of control and it's frightening for those on a fixed income."

Following the budget talks, resident John Bush told the board the time to start working on the budget for next year is now. "You need to turn around and start looking at ways to address issues. Start tomorrow working on the next budget," he said.

In other matters, the board:

•Voted to eliminate the sewer tax/fee effective August 1, 2006. Money collected between now and August would be put into a reserve fund to be used for sewer repairs and maintenance.

•Approved the posting and eventual hiring of three part time DPW workers for the summer at a pay rate of $8 per hour.

•Heard that the police department has responded to 3,393 calls year to date.