Rotterdam budget saves jobs Spending plan includes 13 municipal jobs that had been targeted By PAUL NELSON Staff writer Published 10:56 p.m., Wednesday, October 26, 2011
ROTTERDAM -- The crowd jammed into Town Hall erupted in applause when Town Council member Nicki DiLeva announced that the 13 municipal positions on the chopping block had been restored under a tentative 2012 budget proposal later approved by the governing body.
The roughly $20 million spending plan that carries a 1.7 percent tax increase, crafted by DiLeva and fellow council members Wayne Calder and Matthew Martin, also maintains the municipal services that Supervisor Francis Del Gallo had wanted to scale back.
His $20.1 million preliminary budget, which was unveiled earlier this month, called for the 13 job cuts and a 2.83 percent property tax hike and used $800,000 in surplus money. That is the same amount of fund balance the new proposal draws on.
The supervisor cast the lone dissenting vote Wednesday, saying he wanted to examine the new budget plan before voting on it.
On Wednesday, DiLeva, read a statement that said she and the other council members were able to save the 13 jobs by going line by line through Del Gallo's fiscal plan and making adjustments to expenditures based on discussions with department heads, employees and examining what the spending for the respective departments have been historically. On top of that, they reallocated money from the town's special taxing districts, specifically water, sewer and fire, much like communities of Niskayuna and Schenectady do, DiLeva said.....................>>>>...............>>>>............Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Rotterdam-budget-saves-jobs-2238376.php#ixzz1byMZTWkL
they reallocated money from the town's special taxing districts, specifically water, sewer and fire,
Yes other municipalities are doing the same thing............we can all agree that it is irresponsible, but is it LEGAL???
If I remember correctly, rotterdam's tax bill has a 'line item' specific for each fire district AND the water/sewer dist/dept. It is clearly misleading the taxpayers who are charged a specific amount for each taxing district. If there is money left over, then that money should be returned to the taxpayer (lowering their taxes) and not moved to another budget line item that is over budget and deserving of cuts.
And estimating future heating costs is not even feasible and actually laughable!
The cuts should have remained. And although fdg's tax increase was a bit higher...........it was realistic!
This is nothing more then 'fuzzy math'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Yes other municipalities are doing the same thing............we can all agree that it is irresponsible, but is it LEGAL???
If I remember correctly, rotterdam's tax bill has a 'line item' specific for each fire district AND the water/sewer dist/dept. It is clearly misleading the taxpayers who are charged a specific amount for each taxing district. If there is money left over, then that money should be returned to the taxpayer (lowering their taxes) and not moved to another budget line item that is over budget and deserving of cuts.
And estimating future heating costs is not even feasible and actually laughable!
The cuts should have remained. And although fdg's tax increase was a bit higher...........it was realistic!
This is nothing more then 'fuzzy math'.
Same thing happened with the budget last year. ND + MM + one other TB member based "their" phony budget on income from REMS for ALS fees. What a joke! How much of that income have we seen this year???
Same thing happened with the budget last year. ND + MM + one other TB member based "their" phony budget on income from REMS for ALS fees. What a joke! How much of that income have we seen this year???
WC, ND and MM are a complete joke and hazardous and toxic to all rotterdamians. Thank God that ND will be gone and hopefully WC!
They are TOXIC and IRRESPONSIBLE and boarder on POLITICAL CORRUPTION!! FDG or McGarry would be a smarter and more responsible choice for the rotterdam taxpayers............not HB!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
bumble - it's not really explained well(or at all) in the TU's article. I don't believe they're borrowing anything from Fire Districts first of all. Second, it IS legal. The question remains, however, is it fiscally prudent? If you believe FDG's saber rattling, this is merely kicking the can down the road and next year's supervisor will need to contend with an even greater deficit. Bottom line is it taps fund balance. A different fund balance, but fund balance nonetheless.
they reallocated money from the town's special taxing districts, specifically water, sewer and fire, much like communities of Niskayuna and Schenectady do, DiLeva said.
They took money away from the hard infrastructure that Rotterdam businesses and households rely on every day, and reallocated it to unnecessary government worker and cop salaries. Rotterdam will have to just continue to deal with the water main breaks and boil water restrictions because we gutted the budgets in those departments. I see they didn't TOUCH the police budget when they went looking for money. How convenient.
Not fire districts, all the water and sewer districts just had a gun stuck in their ribs and handed over the money to keep all those jobs AND raises. So if you live in a sewer district that needs an upgrade in a coming year, that can full of money has been kicked into the general fund. I don't believe the average voter or resident understands the accounting minutia involved but suffice to say Peter was robbed to pay Paul ala' John Paulino has done in the city. Some day soon, the chickens come home to roost. There are NO CUTS. The phony cuts, like dropping the allocated budget for heat by 60% is great on paper but sticking to it is impossible. We can't predict a seasonably warm winter anymore than we can predict that electricity rates will drop markedly or that vehicles will require less maintenance this year. Especially when you are not buying new vehicles, you cannot with any sense of reality expect that repairs and maintenance on said fleet will be lessened.
Of course when all you do is politics and you can't conceive of physical reality as this political gang can't, this is what to expect. This is John Paolino's budget. Filled with tricks, gimmicks, mirrors and taxpayer-toxic smoke.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Hopefully the republicans can articulate and educate the residents about this budget sleight of hand and the motives of the greedy FEW behind it, and how it will negatively impact EVERYBODY in the town.
Someone should check and see if it is even legal to take funds from a taxing district (water/sewers) and put it into the general fund or into an specified fund.
This is not only irresponsible...but it is also dangerous by setting such a precedence for future budgets! Rotterdamians should be a town hall with pitchforks! I'm shocked that they're not.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Someone should check and see if it is even legal to take funds from a taxing district (water/sewers) and put it into the general fund or into an specified fund.
I had a lengthy conversation with a representative from the New York State Office of the State Comptroller's Division of Local Government & School Accountability office in Albany. He provided some very useful information and contacts.
There are many details that are required to determine the legality of the actions proposed in the alternate town budget. For example, you need to know if the movement of funds from the tax district to the general town fund is by an interfund transfer (not repaid) or by interfund loan (repaid with interest). Further, there is a question re: if the funds are in established "reserves" or simply from a fund balance. The gentleman stated that there are "restrictions" regarding interfund activity. He referred me to the website below and then suggested that I contact the OSC Division of Legal Services at (518 )474-5586 to discuss munipal law and the specifics of what is being proposed.
The individual stated that there are very specific statutes regarding authorized use of funds in reserves (see section at website below). He understood the concerns of residents regarding raiding funds allocated for infrastructure maintenance and expansion to offset general town expenses (mandatory and discretionary). Brian McGarry penned a Letter to the Editor regarding this issue, but it apparently won't be published in the newspaper.
It was interesting that the individual from OSC discussed "taxpayer equity", suggesting that property owners should not be paying for taxes to a tax district for services not being rendered (e.g., a homeowner who resides in an area without public water should not be paying water tax district for public water). Seems obvious, but there was discussion about this at the public hearing re: the proposed 2012 budget.
Lastly, he told me that the district office responsible for auditing municipalities and school districts in Rotterdam is located in Glens Falls. The phone number for that office is (518 )793-0057.
I would encourage any of you who has time to investigate further to make some phone calls. You will first need the details of the actions proposed in the alternative budget.
BTW, also enjoyed a brief discussion re: a Schenectady Metroplex audit. His office is the one that performed the audit in 2008.
Page 10 of Reserve section of web page provided above: "Use of Unexpended Balances Generally, unexpended balances in a capital reserve fund may be transferred to another capital reserve having the same tax base.
Based on my interpretation, if the water and sewer district funds are held in a capital reserve fund, balances can only be transferred to another capital reserve fund having the same tax base. That would suggest that funds collected in a tax district that encompasses only a portion of a town could NOT be transfered to another reserve that funds expenses for the entire town.
Again, many specific details needed to determine legality of the proposed transfer.
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