The Town of Shawangunk Thursday night unanimously approved its 2022 budget with the amount to be raised by taxes slightly under the state-mandated 2.0 percent tax cap.

The Town Board voted 4-0 to authorize a spending plan that will allocate $4,303,787 for the amount to be raised by taxes in 2022.
Although that is $131,401 more than the amount to be raised in taxes in 2021, it is still under the 2.0 percent tax cap.

Town Supervisor John Valk said Shawangunk has not exceeded the tax cap since it was instituted in 2012.

Joining Valk in voting to approve the 2022 budget were Councilmen Adrian DeWitt, Brian Amthor and Matthew Watkins. Councilman Robert Miller was absent.

Before the budget vote, Valk acknowledged that there had been some “controversy” surrounding the board’s decision to slash $737,000 from the Highway Department’s 2022 budget request by outgoing Highway Superintendent Joseph LoCicero.

LoCicero, who launched an unsuccessful write-in campaign to oust Valk, asked for $2,757,963 in the amount to be raised by taxpayers in 2022. That would have been a 41 percent increase over the $1,934,689 adopted by the Town Board in 2021 and would have put the Town of Shawangunk well over the tax cap.

Valk reminded the Town Board that since 2017 the Town Highway budget has grown 22.25 percent, while the town’s General Fund has increased just 8.1 percent over the same six-year period.

“So most of our money is going to highway,” Valk said. “My question to board members is: ‘I assume you wanted to stay under the tax cap? Is that correct? We could have adopted the proposed (Highway Department) budget that was submitted.’”

“I think we should keep it within the cap,” Watkins said. “I know there have been a lot of comments about how the Town is run based on not spending enough money, but do people realize what it would do to the community. I don’t think there would be many people that could afford the proposals that were made.”

Amthor and DeWitt also agreed they didn’t want the Town of Shawangunk to exceed the tax cap. Once the public hearing was over, the unanimous vote was taken.

Before the meeting began, Valk requested that there be a moment of silence for the recent passing of longtime Town of Shawangunk resident and Ulster County Republican Party Chairman Roger Rascoe.

Rascoe is survived by his wife, Jane, and four children. Jane Rascoe is the Town of Shawangunk Clerk.

In other business, Valk said the board is expected to schedule a public hearing in December on a proposed local law to opt out of allowing cannabis dispensaries and lounges in Shawangunk.

Valk said the Town Board is leaning toward opting out of allowing marijuana shops in the town “to buy ourselves six or eight months” to consider the options in the future.

Municipalities in the state have until the end of the year to opt out of allowing marijuana shops within their borders. Communities that let the deadline pass without action will not be allowed to ban such shops, but will still be allowed to regulate where they can operate.
Anthony Mantello said the Town of Shawangunk could lose a lot of business to neighboring towns that have cannabis retail stores and lounges if Shawangunk doesn’t approve them.

“If we’re one of the earlier adopters of this, then people will build in the habit of coming in here to get their edibles and to get their product and then they’ll stop in town to get their pizza here and God willing we get Dunkin’ Donuts someday,” he said.