Orangetown Council Meeting Features Budget Hearings

The Orangetown Town Council will shift gears quickly one day after the general election settled who will be joining the board in 2012.

The town council's regular meeting, pushed back a day due to the elections, will focus on the 2012 budget. There will be three public hearings on the subject and the board could vote on the the budget, though the deadline is not until Nov. 20.

Orangetown Councilman Denis Troy said he thought the board would not vote on the final 2012 budget tonight. Supervisor Paul Whalen said he was unsure and that with the 20th falling on a Sunday, the board would have to vote by Nov. 18, the Friday before.

The first public hearing, scheduled for 8 p.m., will focus on a local law overriding the state's new two percent tax cap.

Orangetown Director of Finance Charlie Richardson said the actual cap for the town in 2012 is 2.23% due to an exception for property development. Richardson said that number comes from the New York State Department of Finance and Taxation.

"The intent is if you have new property you need to provide services for, you are allowed to exceed two percent," Richardson said.

There is no such exception for tax settlements, which is why the council is unlikely to pass a budget with a tax increase below the cap. Orangetown will pay an estimated $2.36 million in a settlement with Pfizer and $400,000 more in other settlements, bringing the estimated tax increase to nearly seven percent for 2012.

The town budget without the tax settlements would be below the 2.23% cap.

"By my calculation, if you ignore (the tax settlements), which is like ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room, we are slightly under the tax cap," Richardson said. "We had been told that tax certs (challenges), while technically not levied by the town, still count toward our cap."

Richardson said that some board members are still looking for ways to lower the tax increase for 2012, but was not sure how that might be accomplished.

The second public hearing of the night will address the town's contract with the Blauvelt Volunteer Fire Company, which must be settled before the budget can be voted upon.

The third hearing, scheduled for 8:10 p.m. but likely to start considerably later, will focus on the budget itself. Item No. 15 on the agenda is the approval or denial of the proposed budget as the final budget for 2012, but the council could still push that back until the Nov. 20 deadline.

One point of contention at last week's workshop was the decision to use the part of the town's reserves to help pay for the budget. Councilman Michael Maturo was concerned that the current financial problems will still be there in a year and asked if the council would be dip into the reserves again.

"It's raining," Councilman Tom Diviny said. "It's pouring. That's what the fund balance is for."

"It's going to be raining for the next five years," Richardson said.

The full agenda for tonight's meeting can be found here.