By Rob Sample
A brief public hearing on Tuesday, October 10 gave residents and other attendees a peek at the preliminary town budget for 2024. The hearing was part of the biweekly meeting of the Marlborough Town Board.
“Total expenditures for the preliminary budget are $12,401,529,” said Christina Pulliam, the town’s budget officer.
“Subtracting revenues and unexpended funds of $3,677,663 equals the amount to be raised by taxes of $8,723,866.”
As it is currently constituted, this would represent a 2.24 percent increase in the townwide tax rate and a 2.36 percent increase in the tax levy. “The Preliminary budget is $3,536. over the tax cap,” Pulliam pointed out. “We are currently working on the Final budget and hope to move for its adoption at the October meeting, presenting the budget under the 2 percent tax cap.
“As it now stands, a property assessed at $300,000 would have an increase in tax of $57.48,” Pulliam said. “This amount is for General and Highway Funds combined and does not include county tax or special districts.”
“We do have a lot of good things in the upcoming budget, especially in relation to our parks,” said Town Supervisor Scott Corcoran. He pointed out that the town expects to receive additional grant revenue from the state in 2024 to pay for some of these enhancements – which includes new lighting and fencing for play fields and for new pickleball courts that have been proposed.
Beyond the completion of the newly reconstructed recreation center on Route 9W, the town aims to refurbish the 50-year-old building housing the town Highway Department – which Corcoran described as an “eyesore.”
In addition, the town expects a boost in tax revenues to come from recent commercial and residential development. “The tax-based growth factor for 2024 is 1.0160,” said Pulliam. The State comptroller’s office defines “tax-based growth factor” as a town’s determination of “quantity change,” such as from new construction, newly taxable status of existing properties or measurable improvements to taxable properties within a town.
“There is a lot of growth going on in our town,” said Corcoran, pointing to large residential construction such as the Bayside apartment complex on Route 9W, new commercial construction and an assortment of smaller residential developments. “I always look at growth as a positive thing for our town.”
In the public-comments part of the meeting, Mici Simonofsky, chairperson of Marlborough’s Conservation Advisory Committee, asked Corcoran whether the preliminary budget included any raise for town employees. Corcoran said the proposed raise amount is currently 3 percent.
“Last year, to help people cope with inflation, we did a market-based adjustment for employees,” Corcoran said. Now that inflation is lower, the town moved to a flat percentage.
“I’m a big advocate of taking care of our employees,” Corcoran said. “And I always remind people that compensation is a whole package, including benefits, and not just salary.”
Another Marlborough resident, William Bernicker, spoke at length about an ongoing problem he and other residents of Mount Zion Road have each fall: heavy traffic resulting from traffic to neighboring Weed Orchards & Winery and its sister farm, Sonny Weed’s Fruit Farm.
“This past Sunday [October 8] Mount Zion Road was at complete gridlock,” said Bernicker. “Had you needed to get an ambulance through, you couldn’t.”
Councilman Dave Zambito pointed out that much of the traffic resulted from the heavy rains on Saturday, September 7. People postponed their visits until the following day. Additionally, the rains flooded one of the Weed Farm parking lots, making fewer parking spaces available.
Council members also approved a memorandum of understanding with Ulster County, which centralized the arraignment of people arrested at municipalities. “A public defender has to be there at the time of arraignment,” Corcoran pointed out. “When arraignments were handled locally, it often took hours for the public defender to arrive. By bringing people [who are under arrest] to Kingston instead, we will be saving time and money [on personnel costs].”
The Town Board also okayed the following measures:
• An alteration in the residential/commercial mix of the four performance bonds that underwrite the Bayside mixed-use development project on Route 9W. The total amount remains the same.
• The Police Department’s hiring of Brandon Compasso as a part-time police dispatcher.
• The acceptance of a donated parcel of land at 18 Sands Avenue in Milton – during which the Board thanked donors Daniel and Maribeth Wooldridge-King. The land has an assessed value of $20,000 and will become part of Milton’s Sands Avenue Park.