Board continues budget work next week
The Village Board and Treasurer Ralph Walters have put together a budget for 2019-20 that does not exceed New York State’s mandatory tax cap; that is projected to pay down debt by about $605,000; and puts about $120,000 into reserve funds.
It’s a $7,248,797 budget, of which $5,192,417 is the general fund; $912,015 is the water fund; and $1,144,365 is the sewer fund.
The annual public hearing on the budget was held Monday at Village Hall. lasting about 10 minutes. Just two people — Ray Devereaux and Jim Modlin — made comments, although both their comments were in the form of questions.
Devereaux asked for a summary of all of the village’s debt. Neither the board nor Walters had a list of that, but referred Devereaux to a copy of the budget (also available online at www.highlandfallsny.org) where it is broken down line-by-line. It was at that point in the meeting that Mayor Joe D’Onofrio said the budget includes approximately $605,000 in debt payments (bonds and bond anticipation notes). The mayor also said the village paid off $891,000 in debt in 2017-18 and $748,000 in debt in 2018-19.
Modlin asked when the board expected to vote on the budget and if the public could still comment after the hearing.
D’Onofrio said the board will meet again to finalize the budget on Tuesday, April 9 at 6 p.m., and then hopes to adopt it on Monday, April 15 (at a 7 p.m. meeting to be held at the Senior Center).
“If anyone has any comments, we really need them by April 9,” the mayor said. He said the additional meeting to work on the budget was necessitated by the passing of the New York State budget on March 31, which restored some state aid, but also changed some projected sales tax revenue figures.
If the budget was adopted as presented on Monday evening, the tax rate per $1000 of assessed valuation for village property owners would be $10.66.
D’Onofrio took a minute at the end of the hearing to thank Walters, the board members (including former Trustee Charlie Murphy, who was at the session), and the various department heads for their work on the budget.
