By Doug La Rocque
The Office of Senator Marchione has announced her appointment to the powerful NYS Senate Finance Committee. In this new role the Senator will take part in reviewing and conducting legislative oversight on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s annual budget proposal, due out March first. The committee also oversees all legislation that has a fiscal impact on the state and considers all Senate nominations.
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Senator Marchione will continue in her role as Chairman of the Senate’s Local Government Committee. It was in regard to this position that The Eastwick Press recently spoke to the Senator concerning the pros and cons of the NYS two percent tax cap, and its impact on the rural towns of Eastern Rensselaer County. Of these communities only Grafton was able to stay below the .7% limit imposed for 2016. We asked the Senator about the constraints this places on town government to maintain services at current levels while health care, insurance premiums and state mandated retirement costs continue to rise well above the two percent level.
Senator Marchione said that Pensions are a problem. She feels it should be up to the individual whether they want to be part of the state’s pension plans. “New York has made it so everyone working for local government has to have a pension.” She also admits that health care costs are now astronomical. The other side of the argument comes directly from many of the 300,000 constituents in her District, who tell her “they can no longer afford property and school taxes that keep rising,” especially for those on a fixed income.
Senator Marchione said she understands that many towns and cities are hard-pressed to keep up with capital projects such as water, sewer and highway improvements and repairs. Her suggestion is to exempt these projects from the tax cap, “if voted upon and approved by the residents of the municipality.” She feels if this exemption can apply to school districts, it should apply to local governments as well. So far this idea has not been included in the budget talks, partly she said, because for her proposal, five other colleagues in the Senate may have different ideas for exemptions.
Long-time Grafton Councilman Mike Crandall agrees with some of the Senator’s assessments but also feels the state is filtering down too many costs to the small towns. It forces many towns to make tough choices about what to maintain and what to cut. He said, “Flat is not realistic – expenses keep going up.” He advocates for small increases in taxes every couple of years to maintain services, when other sources of revenues are not available.
Berlin Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger is a bit harsher in his criticism of Governor Cuomo and state government. He feels the Governor’s policies are driving some towns toward bankruptcy, should they try of maintain their current level of services. “We had to move $98,000 out of our unallocated reserves in 2015 just to keep the tax increase under control. This year the Town Board decided to bite the bullet and not dip into their reserves.” Jaeger says if they had continued to transfer this money into the revenue stream, in two and half years the town would be broke. Jaeger said local governments, especially in small towns like Berlin, are forced to become creative in looking for other sources of revenue. He gives as an example, the Town of Berlin renting out one of its unused garages to the Rensselaer County Highway Department for storage. Both Jaeger and Crandall agree, their towns have a difficult road ahead as they try to maintain the level of services the residents have come to expect, without dramatically increasing the tax burden.
Senator Marchione also was named to the Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs committee. Marchione represents all of the communities in eastern Rensselaer County. [/private]