The Village of Walden held a public hearing for their 2023-2024 tentative budget this past Tuesday, April 18, and members of the public had some things to say.

Town of Montgomery Historian Mary Ellen Matise brought up the rise in garbage fees, but had more to say about the lack of time to go over the budget. “Unless something really substantive comes up in public hearing tonight, then you’ll go ahead and vote on it, but it doesn’t really give the board a chance to act on anything,” said Matise.

Former Mayor Susan Taylor also spoke, in large part, about budget transfers.

“I always hated budget transfers and it just seems like we’re now depending more and more on budget transfers. I don’t want to say that we’re not being wise when we’re budgeting those lines, but it just seems a little ridiculous. To put money in those lines, and now we’re transferring it all over the place to meet bills where we need to meet bills,” said Taylor.

Village Manager John Revella responded, stating that it isn’t coming out of substantial funding. “It didn’t really take away from a lot of things that were going on. It doesn’t come out of projects. It doesn’t come out of personnel lines in the same department. Actual work being done wasn’t the sacrifice for the budget transfers,” Revella answered.

She also mentioned CSEA workers deserving more. “I always felt, even when I sat on that side, that they were the backbone of this village, not the people that sat here. I feel that it should be mentioned that when we talk about those employees, to think about those kinds of nice big numbers for those positions. They have families. They have homes, they have expenses. It just seems like sometimes when we negotiate that contract, they’re bearing the brunt of “Oh, now let’s think about the taxpayers when we settle that contract,” said Taylor.

Taylor hopes there is also more enforcement now that garbage fees have been raised.

The issue of cameras being installed or replaced in the village for safety and security purposes was brought up as it isn’t included in the budget.

Former Village Trustee Lynn Thompson commented on this, stating that there are ongoing issues in local parks where cameras could definitely be used. “I heard for years and years, cameras, cameras, cameras, somewhere in the budget we need to find money for cameras.”

Revella stated, “We don’t have quotes yet for cameras to talk about that. But when we get the quotes we can have the discussion up here about how to afford them and if there’s grants available or to budget for them.”

Trustees Becky Pearson and Christopher Batson piggybacked cameras, saying they should find the money for it somewhere.

Board members also brought up possibly increasing the discount seniors receive on garbage fees, which they later implemented into the budget adoption.

Mayor John Ramos stated he felt the budget was “well thought out and well worked.”

The budget was right at the tax cap of 2.67 percent.
There are some salary raises, including a roughly $3,000 raise for the recreation coordinator and a $4,000 raise for lifeguards. The treasurer also got a roughly $20,000 raise. Trustee Pearson noted that these were better than last year’s considerably larger raises.

Other salaries include $7,905 for the mayor and $6,375 for each trustee. The village manager will earn $117,069, a roughly $7,000 raise from last year. The treasurer’s salary will be $96,008, police chief $144,200, and recreation coordinator $90,024.

The building inspector will earn $80,000. This was the biggest jump, from $12,473.

The budget was later adopted and the final budget amounts to $9.6 million.

A copy of the final budget can be found on the Village of Walden website.