New Hartford taxes may decrease 20%

Proposed budget cuts spending, gives supervisor 49% raise

By DAN MINER

Posted Oct 06, 2010 @ 04:52 PM

Last update Oct 06, 2010 @ 09:46 PM

Town Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski this week released his proposed 2011 budget, which includes a 20 percent property tax rate decrease but also a 49 percent pay increase for himself and raises for several other town employees.

The budget also includes layoffs for five workers in the highway department, which Tyksinkski estimates will save the town roughly $300,000. Overall spending was reduced by roughly 11.6 percent from last year’s budget — from about $15 million to $13.26 million.

Tyksinski said the budget, his first as supervisor, was the culmination of organizational change he’s been working on since he took office in January. He said it was not “bare bones” nor was it “inflated,” but a “good sound budget.”

“It’s going to turn around the finances in this town along with some tax relief for residents,” he said. “We’re changing things, and we’ve changed a lot in nine months.”

During the tenure of former town Supervisor Earle Reed, from 2006 to 2010, the town’s main operating fund, known as the general fund, decreased from about $2.8 million to the current negative balance of $350,000. The 2010 budget included a highly controversial 46 percent property tax increase.

Tyksinski said the dash to cut that budget led to the elimination of needed positions in the town and unbudgeted expenses of more than $200,000.

Under the proposed budget, most town residents would see their property taxes go from $3.20 per $1,000 in assessed value to $2.69 per $1,000 in assessed value. That translates to a decrease of roughly $104 on a $150,000 home, from a tax bill of $507 in 2010 to a tax bill of $403 in 2011.

The Town Board must approve the budget next month.

Increases

Tyksinski defended pay raises in the face of layoffs and the town’s fiscal issues. His own pay will rise from $14,795 to $22,000, which he said will more adequately reflect the 30 to 40 hours he works per week.

Other raises include:

* Hilarie Elefante, the town’s receiver of taxes, received a 32 percent raise, from $26,098 to $34,500. An O-D front page photograph taken on the night Tyksinski was elected showed him kissing Elefante, but Wednesday he denied the two were dating and said they were “friends.”

He called questions about the personal relationship’s influence on the raise “ridiculous.”

* Herb Cully, the town attorney, received a 20 percent raise, from $50,000 to $60,000. Tyksinski pointed out that amount is still only half that made by former Town Attorney Gerald Green, who earned $120,011 in 2008.

* Police Chief Michael Inserra, who was appointed June 17, received a five percent raise, from $91,000 to $95,512. Tyksinski said the raise was necessary because of the likelihood that negotiations with the town’s police union are finalized this year, and that the police chief must by law make more than the highest paid union employee.

The Police Department’s budget as a whole also rose about $440,000, to $3.3 million. Tyksinski said that took into account the rise in pension and health care costs, the possibility of pay raises and retroactive pay if the contract was settled and bookkeeping errors in the last budget that made the number artificially low.

Ed Wiatr Jr., co-founder of the citizens’ group Concerned Citizens for Honest & Open Government, sent the supervisor an e-mail criticizing the raises and the police budget.

“I strongly recommend you reconsider your position,” Wiatr said. “Other municipalities are cutting back and not increasing wages and salaries, however, you are doing the opposite. You are setting a poor example of what can and would be done.”

Spending down

The proposed budget benefits from a number of different measures taken during the year, Tyksinski said. Those include:

* The merger of New Hartford’s 911 emergency dispatch center with that of Oneida County, which will saved the town from $400,000 to $500,000.

* The elimination of the town planner position earlier this year, which Tyksinski said was an annual savings of between $60,000 to $70,000.

* Early retirement incentives taken by five employees in July.

The budget now will be up to the Town Board to discuss and make changes before a final approval vote. Board members received it earlier this week, and at least one said she was still forming her opinion.

“I am happy that it is going to cut the tax rate,” Christine Krupa said. “I’m going to review it in depth and ask questions of the supervisor, and we’re probably going to discuss it within the next couple of Town Board meetings.”

Board member Donald Backman said he was worried about the effect of losing five full-time members of the highway department, but said he expected the final document to be a compromise between the supervisor and the board.

“Any tax decrease is always a step in the right direction,” Backman said. “But you’ve still got services to deliver.”

Proposed 2011 budget

* $13.26 million: Total proposed 2011 budget in New Hartford.

* 11.6 percent: Decrease in proposed spending from 2010 actual budget.

* 20 percent: Proposed reduction in property tax rate.

* 46 percent: Tax increase from 2009 to 2010 budget.

* 49 percent: Proposed raise for Tyksinski, along with a 32 percent proposed raise for the town’s receiver of taxes and 20 percent raise for its attorney