“But where are you going to cut, Earle?”
That’s what Town Board member Christine Krupa said to Town Supervisor Earle Reed Wednesday night as he told a reporter there was support among other board members for replenishing $75,000 for the New Hartford Public Library.
At the regularly scheduled Town Board meeting, Krupa submitted changes to the town’s proposed 2010 budget that amounted to savings of $180,670 in the $15 million budget.
The town is facing a possible 54 percent property tax hike in 2010, and Krupa organized several public working sessions over the past month to look for ways to reduce that number.
In addition to knocking the town’s share of the library budget from $475,000 back down to the originally proposed $400,000, she suggested a range of other cuts.
Among them:
* Eliminating one full-time police office from the town police force to save $57,920.
* Cutting a second new police car from the budget. The proposed budget already knocked out one of the three new cars Police Chief Ray Philo had requested.
* Reducing the proposed town attorney salary from $80,000 per year to $50,000.
She also said additional savings of about $16,000 could be reaped by having non-union employees contribute more to their health care coverage, and by offering an early retirement incentive to town employees.
After the meeting, Philo, who had been present for Krupa’s proposals, expressed strong disagreement with her cuts to his department.
“This doesn’t appear to be very well thought through,” he said. “I believe she has not looked at the information I provided about staffing and crime prevention.”
He said his staffing levels had been created as part of the State Environmental Quality Review process for development projects.
And the car?
“I will work with the board to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Philo said.
Board member Rich Woodland Jr. said he supports the cuts to the attorney’s salary.
Reached later, Krupa said Reed had said publicly that more cuts needed to be made, but wasn’t suggesting any of his own.
“If not those cuts, then what are they going to cut?” she said. “My thought is they probably aren’t going to cut anything.”
There will be public hearings today and Thursday Nov. 12 at which residents can give their views on the budget. Both are scheduled for at 6 p.m. at Perry Jr. High School.
