Glenville Town Board restores jobs cut in budget draft

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Goot

The Town Board on Wednesday restored positions that would have been cut under an earlier proposal as it voted on the preliminary 2009 budget.

The $17.9 million total budget is an increase over this year’s $17.55 million spending plan. It would result in a 9.7 percent tax rate increase, which equates to nearly $50 increase for an average Glenville property assessed at $173,000 and an $8 increase for an average Scotia property assessed at $124,000.

Board members voted to restore the nine police and highway positions that Supervisor Frank Quinn had cut in his tentative budget.

“I think [Quinn’s] budget cuts too deep into essential services and eliminates far too many positions,” said board member Chris Koetzle.

Quinn said he disagreed with the assertion that residents would have been hurt by the cuts. “I haven’t seen the data,” he said.

Board member Mark Quinn offered an amendment to use another $100,000 of the fund balance, or surplus, to offset the tax levy. He said he was comfortable tapping more of the surplus because revenues were ahead of expenses for 2008 so far and the town will likely have a bigger fund balance than projected at the end of this year.

Board member Edward Rosenberg offered another amendment to lower the revenue projections for the sales and mortgage taxes the town will receive by $50,000 each in light of the sluggish economy. Both amendments passed and effectively canceled each other out so there was no change in the tax rate.

The amount of tax increase was misstated at an earlier meeting because the figure had neglected to include $100,000 of debt for a highway paving project.

The board will hold a public hearing on the preliminary budget on Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. It is scheduled to vote on the final budget on Nov. 19.

park design

In other business, the board voted to hire Environmental Design Partnership of Clifton Park to design the Maalwyck Park improvements.

Director of Human Services James MacFarland said the $500,000 project will include a new access road and second entrance to the park, water and sewer lines and a central support building with rest rooms and a pavilion. The project will be designed in the winter and be put out to bid for construction during the spring and summer of 2009. It is funded with a state $250,000 Land and Water Conservation Fund grant and the rest through the recreation fees the town collected from subdivision projects.