More Budget Deliberations

At yesterday's Town Board work session, Supervisor Alison Jolicoeur offered details of how she proposes to reduce the size of next year's budget and the burden it would impose on taxpayers. Her new version requires $314,290 less in tax revenue, cuts that were mostly accomplished by reducing the funds allocated to the Highway Department and to a lesser degree, the Parks and Recreation Department. Town Board members also expressed support for foregoing their salary increase.

Highway Superintendent Shawn Keeler said he would slash his budget for blacktop, taking about 50% of the roads off his list that he had planned to resurface. He also said he would have to continue fixing aging equipment that is starting to break down rather than replace it.

The new tentative budget shows no change in allocations for fire protection services or special districts and continues to rely on taking $2.3 million from the town's fund balances. Town Board member Louie Luongo said that while he appreciated the work done over the last few weeks to keep the budget lean, he also cautioned about the longterm consequence of excessive cost-cutting. "There's a lot of places where it looks on the outside like we can cut, but what's going to happen to us later on?" he asked. "We have to be careful when we cut things out, because there is going to be a point where we need to catch up."

The cost of short-term budgeting came through loud and clear in a statement earlier in the meeting from Michael Moculski, chairman of the board of the Putnam Valley Ambulance Corps. Moculski said the PVAC had requested a budget contribution from the town of $554,000 for next year but was only allocated $312,000. In addition to the rising cost of electricity, insurance, fuel, and medical supplies, Moculski said the PVAC has also had to hire contract workers to maintain its services because they haven't been able to attract enough volunteers, as has been a problem nationwide.

Moculski noted that over the last four years, the Town Board has wanted to keep its budgets as low as possible and declined to give the PVAC an increase. To address its needs, the PVAC began using its reserves but he said those reserves have now been expended. "The $554,000 requested is not a negotiating starting point. It was the minimum amount we determined was required to sustain the current service," he said.

Moculski spelled out the risk to the town if the PVAC is not adequately funded: "Without consistent staffing there will be occasions when a call comes in and the ambulance is not immediately available for the call from the Corps. That may mean a longer wait for care, a longer wait for transport or reliance on a neighboring agency that may itself already be committed to another emergency."

The one hope on the horizon offered yesterday was the possibility that the county legislature may vote to approve sharing $6.5 million in unspent funds this year with towns and villages. Town Board member Christian Russo said the amount that might come to Putnam Valley if that proposal is approved is about $780,000. Even if there are restrictions on how the funds are used, that would be a big help.

"This is still a work in progress," Angelico said. "We're not finished yet." The public hearing on the budget is next Wednesday, October 21st at 6pm.

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