Orangetown Council Votes Against Tax Cap Override

The Orangetown Council voted, 3-2, against legislation that would have given the board the ability to override the state mandated tax levy cap during Tuesday's meeting in town hall.

All five members of the council had stated a preference to keep the 2014 budget under the cap, which is a 1.66 percent increase, and Supervisor Andy Stewart's tentative budget is below it, but the members of the council differed on the necessity of the flexibility the local law would have provided. 

Councilmen Tom Diviny, Denis Troy and Tom Morr voted against the cap override. Stewart and Councilman Paul Valentine voted in favor. After the other four were split, Troy gave the deciding vote. In the past, he had supported the override, but said that this year was different because working budget was already below the cap. 

"Two years ago, I voted to override the cap and I got beat up big time here by several people in the audience," Troy said. "I still thought it was the right thing to do to protect the town. If you are not under the cap (without the override in place), it puts you in a greater negative position. Last year, the Supervisor came in with a nine percent budget increase. I again voted to override the cap. I thought it was the right thing to do. Each year, we got under the cap.

"This year, we are under the budget cap. Therefore, being that we're already under the cap, I am voting not to override the cap."

Diviny has opposed overriding the cap before, including two years ago when it also failed to pass. Morr cited the same reason in his opposition to the override as Troy.

"The way the tax cap calculations are done, we're under the cap now, as we speak, by a small amount," Morr said. "This differs from prior years when this waiver passed because at this point in the process, the budget was over the cap. Work needed to be done for it to be brought under. If we are ultimately under the cap, it is not needed.

"We are under the cap right now. For that reason, and to show the commitment to the taxpayers to stay under the cap, that after the election somebody won't all of a sudden find reason to increase the budget, which is not adopted until after election day. I don't think we should waive it."

The Supervisor's tentative budget, which the board approved Tuesday night as the preliminary budget, is approximately $15,000 under the cap, close enough that even a small adjustment in numbers the town does not control could put them over. 

"The entire board has registered its long-standing commitment to stay under the cap," Stewart said. "What we are hearing right now is a discussion of what should be Ultimately irrelevant. We’re also hearing essentially a political discussion, which is kind of inevitable, over who did what, when. I think our goal should be, and I cherish this goal, to work together as a team to continue to come in under the cap, as the proposed budget is. To stick to the goal of budget control regardless of what New York State or anybody else says. Given that we are so close to the margin and I don’t want us to be pinned down with a time frame issue, I think it’s something we should have in our pocket.

"It's very difficult in the political circumstances, and with the attention span of the public, when you stand to be accused of exceeding the cap simply because you adopted a law which enables you to do so if everybody decides it's what you need to do. A vote of prudence over politics is the way to go. Clearly the majority did not favor that, which is fine because we don't need it."

Stewart, a Democrat, and Republicans Troy and Diviny are all up for re-election next month. Diviny disputed the notion that the vote was a political move. 

"When (Republican) Paul Whalen was Supervisor, I voted against my own party and voted not to override the cap," Diviny said. "You weren't Supervisor. Paul was. I voted against it. Mike Maturo (then a councilman) voted against it. Paul Whalen saw the error of his ways and voted against it. 

"You came in at 1.9 (percent tax increase). There is a lot of meat on that budget bone. We're going to be way under the cap. We're not going to spend as much fund balance as you think we are. But you want to throw politics in because you voted to override the cap and I voted against it."

Stewart replied that he was speaking of Troy's vote when he brought up politics.

"Last year, when you used a fund balance of $1.25 million (in your proposed budget), we increased it to $1.75 million," Troy said. "You voted against that because yo thought it was irresponsible. This year, you come in at 1.9 (percent) using $3.5 million. All I'm talking about is consistency. You want to talk about political. You voted against the budget (last year)."

At that point, Stewart interrupted Troy to dispute that. Troy said was referring to voting against using increased fund balance and cutting town financing of the libraries. 

The dispute over the budget continued through the meeting, including the discussion of the adoption of the preliminary budget. Stewart pointed out that he had not heard any suggestions from the members of the council since he presented his tentative budget in September and despite the contentious nature of the debate, characterized much of it as "good discussion."

The state deadline for the Orangetown Council to adopt its 2014 budget is Nov. 19. 

Editor's note: Check back with Patch for more on Tuesday night's discussion of the 2014 Orangetown Budget.