2003-10-06 SPM10/06/2003.SPM
A Special Meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Wappinger was held on
October 6, 2003, at the Town Hall, 20 Middlebush Road, Wappingers Falls,
New York. Supervisor Ruggiero opened the meeting at 7:34 p.m. The
purpose of the Special Meeting is the presentation of the 2004 Tentative
Budget to the Board Members
Present:
Joseph Ruggiero, Supervisor
Robert Valdati, Councilman
Christopher Colsey, Councilman
Joseph Paoloni, Councilman
Gloria J. Morse, Town Clerk
Others Present:
Al Roberts, Attorney to the Town
Absent:
Vincent Bettina, Councilman
Supervisor Ruggiero informed the board that he submitted the Supervisors
Tentative Budget for 2004 to the Town Clerk on September 30th as required
by law, and this meeting has been called for the purpose of distributing the
Town Budget to the Town Board. and to establish a schedule for budget
committee meetings. He is aware that the economy is not doing well
throughout the area and has seen some of our neighboring towns such as the
Town of Poughkeepsie come forth with a 10% tax increases and layoffs in
certain departments. We are going to discuss several things in this years
budget and we can inform our residents that the Town of Wappinger has
expanded its services and opened a new bulk recycle center which is now
open to village residents, where is has never been in the past. This years
budget reflects some movement from the B Fund to the A Fund to pay for the
recycle center. The good news is the assessment rolls in the town have
increased. This year the Town Board passed a local law which is paying the
Veterans exemption. The Veterans exemption increased the amount of
exemptions on the tax rolls of approximately $12 million dollars which is less
than 1% of the total assessment. That assessment exemption occurred in the
town wide Homestead rate which has seen a decrease in the taxable
assessment roll. The town wide Homestead taxable assessment roll changed
from $679,520,247 to $627,254,632. The town wide Non Homestead taxable
assessment rolls went from $240,701,086 to $238,967,118. The town budget
reduces the department head requests. The department head requests are
$7,000,052,084 in expenditures and the Supervisors plan calls for $6,000,660,
512 which is a 3.34% increase over last year. Last years budget had at 9.8%
decrease in spending from the previous year. In 2003 the Wappinger Town
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Board appropriated $1,000,045,403 from Fund Balance to reduce taxes. This
year we are proposing to appropriate $808,762 to appropriate Fund balance
to increase tax levels. This represents a difference of $276,641. Even though
the Tentative Budget proposes a 3.34% increase in overall spending, there
still exists a Highway tax levy we must deal with. At this time Supervisor
Ruggiero wished to thank the comptroller, the department heads and the
town board staff for all their hard work in helping him assemble the budget.
Councilman Valdati wished to know what would be the tens of thousands of
dollars required to move a percentage point. Supervisor Ruggiero said it
depends. If you are in the Highway Fund it would take about twenty
thousand dollars to move a percentage point. If you are in the A Fund which
has larger tax base and more Fund balance it would take thirty to fifty
thousand dollars. Because there is no tax levy in the B Fund you could
eliminate the entire B Fund and the budget does not move a dollar.
There was no other business to come before the board.
Councilman Paoloni moved to close the Special Meeting seconded by
Councilman Valdati and unanimously carried.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
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Gloria J. o e
Town Cle �