Lloyd board divided over budget

By Nicholas Tantillo
Posted 11/20/18

Shortly after officials adopted the 2019 budget, the town board’s Nov. 14 meeting ended in a heated exchange about board members’ participation in the budget-making process.~NEWLINE~~NEWLINE~As …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Lloyd board divided over budget

Posted

Shortly after officials adopted the 2019 budget, the town board’s Nov. 14 meeting ended in a heated exchange about board members’ participation in the budget-making process.

As the meeting adjourned, Town of Lloyd Supervisor Paul Hansut said that the town was $232,000 over budget on the morning of Nov. 14, and that he and the town’s bookkeeper — not board members — were responsible for lowering the budget below the tax cap.

Councilmember Joseph Mazzetti said the board took an active role in the budget process and referred to emails with the supervisor that he said shows their participation.

Mazzetti said he received an email with the budget around 3 p.m. on Nov. 14, hours before the vote.
“That doesn’t give you a lot of time to do homework, ask questions,” Mazzetti said. “To say that we didn’t take this seriously is a disingenuous statement.”

Board members received a draft of the budget in early October, Hansut said. Members met with the heads of town departments to discuss the budget on Oct. 18. In past years, members and department heads have met up to four times during the budget process, he said.

Prior to the Nov. 14 meeting, the town was over budget by $232,000, most of which came from a 2017 settlement with the Police Department.

Hansut said the board suggested using unexpended monies from the water and sewer funds to offset the budget. He said this was the only suggestion he received from the board. Laws regulate how unexpended monies can be used and the town did not pursue this suggestion.

Councilmember Claire Winslow also said the board was engaged in the budget process. Winslow said she met with officials of several town departments prior to Nov. 14 and brought what she found to the supervisor. She said there were also phone calls and emails with the supervisor about the budget.

Now adopted, the 2019 budget is below the state-issued tax cap, which limits tax increases to 2 percent. At the board’s Nov. 7 meeting, Hansut said he didn’t expect the budget to meet he cap. Taxes were estimated to rise 5 percent.

“I’m happy that we made it,” Hansut said of the final budget.

To bring the budget below the cap, officials cut line items in the general fund, including town hall improvements, sidewalks and “beautification.”

Each salary of the supervisor and board members were cut by $2,000. Some officials took issue with this. The cut equated to a roughly 20 percent reduction for board members and a 7 percent reduction for the supervisor.

At the Nov. 14 meeting, the supervisor’s salary was lowered another $4,000 by a motion called for by Mazzetti. “If we’re going to start cutting, we need to have a rationale,” Mazzetti said.

Hansut voted in favor of the motion. “It’s disappointing,” he said, “that the work I put in to get [the budget] under the cap would result in them reducing my salary another $4,000.”

Councilman Lenny Auchmoody voted against the motion. According to the 2019 budget, the supervisor’s salary is $24,000 and each board member’s salary is $7,469.

Unexpended fund balances — unspent money from the previous budget — were also reduced from the general, highway, water and sewer funds.