by Doug La Rocque
A Pared Down Berlin Town Budget To Be Presented At Public Hearing
After its first budget workshop, the Berlin Town Board was looking at a tentative 2017 budget that called for taxes to go up nearly 11 percent.[private]At its second workshop last week, the Board trimmed a few more spending lines and increased some revenue projections to come up with a preliminary budget that calls for a tax hike of $1.19 per thousand of assessed valuation. The overall increase in the tax rate is now at 9.08%. The biggest hurdle the Board had to overcome this year was the loss of $28,000 in the sale of forestry products off town land. The Board has been informed that the logging operations have ceased, and will therefore offer no revenue for 2017. Board members made up some of this by increasing the anticipated share of sales tax collections to $185,000 – this decision based on the trends in the revenue line over the past several years. They also added $2,000 to the projected Mortgage Tax collections, bringing this number to $20,000. Also discussed was using some of the unexpended fund balance tobring the tax rate down even further, but the Board decided not totouch the money at this time.
Some of the increased expenses the Town is facing this coming year are a hike in health insurance rates, estimated to be at least 10%, and looming legal costs as the Town defends itself from any financial liability that may arise out of the PFOA situation with the Petersburgh landfill. Berlin once owned and operated a portion of it, now found to be leaching PFOA into a tributary of the Little Hoosic River. Another unknown at this time is the outcome of contract negotiations with the union representing Highway Department employees. The Board considered some modifications, but took no action at this meeting.
The Board set 7 pm on Thursday, November 10 as the time for its public hearing on the proposed budget. The hearing will be held at the Town’s Municipal Complex, just prior to the regularly scheduled Town Board meeting. The Board will also have to adopt a local law allowing them to exceed the tax cap, set this year by New York State at 0.6%. This action must be approved by 60% percent of the Board, in this case requiring the vote of at least three members, before the Board can vote on accepting the 2017 budget.[/private]