Spencerport budget calls for tax increase

Spencerport budget calls for tax increase
Presentation March 28 at Exempts Club

Overall, the budget for 2007-08 looks good, Village of Spencerport Mayor Ted Walker said.

The village has three funds from which they draw revenues - the general fund, which is where the tax rate comes from and covers streets, sidewalks, refuse and recycling and community activities; the sewer fund which covers the collection system and pipe maintenance within the village and the electric fund which covers all the costs associated with purchasing and selling electricity, infrastructure, substation, transformers. All three funds have some overlapping costs and also have employee costs.

"Over the past three years we have raised the tax rate fairly significantly to cover our street improvement program," Walker said. "The tax rate this year is $3.30 (up from $2.70 per $1,000 the year prior) and we are looking at a tax rate of $3.43 per $1,000 of assessed value this year. An increase of 13 cents."

The tax increase will generate about $22,000 additional revenue. "A tax increase doesn't necessarily garner us a lot of additional money," he said.

The general fund spending increased $118,000 in the projected budget. "Part of that is from maintaining the streets improvement program and we are also looking at equipment replacement and building upgrades at two DPW buildings - one a roof replacement and the other replacing the metal skin on the building. We also are going to reinstate the sidewalk replacement and have allocated $40,000 to that initiative - we haven't identified where the sidewalks will go yet," Walker said.

Another initiative the village is undertaking, the East Avenue project, will involve beginning the conceptual design phase. "We need to look at and understand the intersection design and evaluate the connections onto Lyell as well as develop cost and infrastructure requirements for the project. Once that's done we can start looking for funding for the project."

The village is also looking to adopt a refuse toter program in which it will purchase wheeled garbage cans for resale to the residents. "We're going to retrofit our trucks for the toters. The purpose of it is for ergonomic improvements for the village employees who have to pick up the trash and it will allow residents a larger container for their trash and bulk items. The purchase of a toter is voluntary."

Continuing the gazebo concert series, purchasing additional American flags and banners for street lights, making the village code book electronic and posting it on the website, and providing a floating dock on the canal near the gazebo area are also part of the projected budget, he said.

On the savings side, village officials bid out the village's municipal insurance and saved 22 percent and it was also able to reduce employee health care cost by $8,000.

Under the sewer side of the equation, the per unit fee will increase from this year's $270 to $380 per unit cost under the proposed budget. "The bulk of the increase is so we can start paying the debt service for taking the treatment plant off line," Walker said. "We'll spend about $60,000 relining some of our sewer pipes and maintaining the collection system."

Currently, the electric rate will remain the same but Walker said village officials are going to undertake a rate increase study. "The status of our electric fund is such that we are a good candidate for a rate increase," he said. The village must hire a consultant, then work with the Public Service Commission to see if a rate increase is warranted. "We have gone five years without an electric rate increase and originally we thought we would have to increase rates every three years," he said. "The electric department is looking to build an inventory of transformers and looking for more street lights and we want to get a truck with a hydraulic device and replace the meter reading handheld devices."

Walker said he was happy with the budget village officials will be presenting. "We were able to keep rate increases to a manageable level so we don't have any surprises in the future," he said.

The budget will be presented Wednesday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Exempts Club. The budget must be approved and put in place by May 1.