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2009-11-09 SP MTG.#40 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 318 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING MTG. # 40 NOVEMBER 9, 2009 RES. 346-347 7:00 p.m. TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC COUNCILMAN ANTHONY METIVIER COUNCILMAN RONALD MONTESI COUNCILMAN JOHN STROUGH COUNCILMAN TIM BREWER TOWN OFFICIALS Town Counsel Bob Hafner Budget Officer Barbara Tierney IT Dept. Ryan Lashway Water Supt. Bruce Ostrander Wastewater Supt. Mike Shaw Cemetery Supt. Mike Genier Sr. Planner Stu Baker Director of Recreation Steve Lovering Building and Grounds Supt. Chuck Rice PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY SUPERVISOR DANIEL STEC PUBLIC HEARING – 2010 ANNUAL TOWN BUDGET PUBLICATION DATE: NOVEMBER 3, 2009 Supervisor Stec-We have got the public hearing on the 2010 Budget and as we often do we have got a power point show hitting the highlights of the budget prepared. We will go through a pretty brief power point presentation and then we will open the meeting to public comment on the proposed budget. ( power point sheets at end of meeting) POWER POINT PRESENTATION (See copy of slides at end of Board Meeting) I. th Supervisor Stec-The highlights, the summary slide, the 2010 Budget will be the 9 consecutive year without a General Town Tax, probably many of you are tired of hearing me talk about it. I have had a lot of opportunity to talk about it over the last several months. But, this year there were only thirty seven towns out of nine hundred and thirty nine in New York State that did not have a General Town or Highway Tax. Next year will be the ninth consecutive year that we have been able to do that. Some of the highlights in the budget just to point out is that the budget does include as is the case for all local municipalities and counties including Warren County approximately in our case almost an exactly fifty percent increase in the New York State Retirement costs. Many people know that the State Retirement System is a defined benefit plan which means when the stock portfolio of the fund goes down the local contributions to the program needs to go up. To us, across all, this is not just the General Fund but in all funds is two hundred and forty two and a half thousand dollar increase. A fifty percent increase so that is note worthy. Additionally there is only one vehicle in the budget and that is a truck it is a large plow truck type of truck for the Highway Department budgeted a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. No other vehicles in the budget. There are no pay increases for the Town Board Members in the 2010 budget. We are going to freeze the 2009 salaries for Town Board Members, other elected officials, the Clerk, the Highway Superintendent, the Judges will receive a three percent increase. But, the four Town Councilmen and the Town Supervisor will not be receiving a pay increase. Slide II SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 319 This is the grant total, this is already reported in the Post Star the 2009 Budget for all funds this is Water, Wastewater, Fire, EMS, Lighting, Cemetery, Highway the General Fund, all the funds are up from twenty six point three six million to twenty six point seven two million. Three hundred and sixty three thousand dollar increase or one point three eight percent increase over all. As I mentioned previous like two hundred and forty two thousand dollars is an increase in retirement costs, so if we did not have that fifty percent increase in retirement you take two hundred and forty two thousand dollars off that three sixty three you are looking at probably an increase of about a half of a percent or so. Basically it is a pretty flat budget on the whole. As in years past I just updated the slide from 2004 to 2010 budget you can see that the change went from twenty four point nine million to the proposed twenty six point seven million and when you annualize that over those years it is about a one point two percent increase. So, again over the last six years over all have been pretty flat for all the budgets. Slide III This graphically shows that if you look at the 2004 spike and the first year there after two thousand four, two thousand five and cut the total budget seven point four percent and then in two thousand five and then you can see it trended basically steadily upward after that and if you fit a straight line to that really from two thousand one to two thousand ten you can see the straight line would probably fit in there fairly reasonably. Slide IV Portions of the total budget you have got General Fund, Highway Fund, Cemetery and Solid Waste and you can see the proposed 2010 number compared to the 2009 number and the change. Again, that General Fund of four hundred thousand dollars in the General Fund is a little over a hundred thousand is the retirement amount. There is also two hundred and forty thousand dollar debt payment that we have authorized earlier this current year for next year that we need to pay on for Main Street. So, when you combine those two basically the General Fund would have also been just over flat. The Cemetery Fund although an eight percent change on a relatively small number forty one thousand dollars, Barbara would tell you if you look, predominately that is a four percent union wage increase and the fifty percent retirement increase in that fund that are basically the lion share that is driving that number to be so high. Then actually you can see the Highway Fund and the Solid Waste Fund are both actually down a little bit over last year and a lot of that in Highway Fund is really due to lower energy costs. Slide V Then a similar graph as the one before but this one is not for the total of all funds it is for the General Fund and you can see again two thousand four to two thousand five we cut it pretty good and then two thousand five on forward has been marching along. But, from that ten million eighty five thousand number in two thousand four to the proposed eleven point four million dollars that we are talking about tonight it has gone up about two point one percent on average over those six years. Slide VI Outside the General Fund the Emergency Services, Lighting, Wastewater and Water you can see that Emergency Services that includes Fire and EMS and this is the appropriations and it is up three point four percent in Emergency Services. The Lighting District we kept the same, it is not going to change. Wastewater is up seven percent that is not necessarily that their cost per gallon or treated or anything like that is up seven percent as ..water it is that there are more users of the wastewater system has grown. That seven percent increase is being spread out over more users, so it is not that the average user is going to see a seven percent increase in their wastewater bill. Similarly the water budget is actually down three and a half percent. Slide VII SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 320 Now talking about EMS tonight I carried this slide over from last year and just updated it to show you that the Town has had success in finding a non property tax revenue for EMS and that is the third party billing or bill for service. Two thousand five is the first year that we got that started and you can see that number for two thousand nine the eight hundred and seventy two thousand dollars is a year to date number as of this morning. We are on pace in two thousand nine to exceed a million dollars in EMS billing, essentially insurance money for ambulance. I personally am a believer in pay as you go user base if you use the service those are the people that benefit from the service should be the ones that predominately pay for it. EMS and bill for service is a good example of that. We do not have a hard collection policy where we are shaking down people that have difficulty to pay, in fact if there is a hardship there is a process in place with our third party biller for people to make that sort of an appeal. So, but for those that do have the Health Insurance to have the ambulance insurance on their Health Insurance which is everybody that has the Health Insurance that ambulance whether it is Medicare or Medicade or private insurance is paying the town for those ambulance rides. You can see that since inception in EMS that is three and a half million dollars of revenue. Now, how they have been used, well obviously we built the new EMS station for West Glens Falls and that is a significant debt payment that they have right now but the other thing that we have done is we have added a paid crew and actually that has grown over the years. Right now seven days a week from six in the morning to six in the evening seven days a week there is two paid crews on in Queensbury at any given time. So, we have better response overall better service but actually the EMS property tax rate or tax levy is about half of what it used to be. So, I guess one good piece of the news is that I think we have budgeted about eight hundred and fifty thousand for next years revenue for EMS for third party billing so that is non property tax money that is coming in to help pay for EMS, so that is the good news story. I would just like to give an update on this on the success that we have had there. Slide VIII This slide basically shows I want to draw attention to this the amount to be raised by taxes for Fire and EMS combined. You can see that although our spending has gone up we were able because of that EMS bill for service number to drastically reduce the amount to be raised in taxes. So, even though we are spending more because we have paid crews on you can see really from two thousand four, two point seven million to two thousand ten, two point nine five million in those six years has gone up by significantly less then inflation. Again, that is because we didn’t need to raise as much taxes. Again, this is not just EMS it is EMS and Fire combined so actually EMS is making that curve look pretty good when you combine Fire. But, you know, people I think generally view Fire and EMS together so I put that slide together to show you the combined amount to be raised in taxes for Fire and EMS so it is under control but the story is that a lot of that control is the fact that we have had a pretty successful EMS bill for service program in place. I think that is the last slide. I will open the public hearing ( 7:16 P.M) on the 2010 Town Budget and just ask the people to raise their hand and I will call on folks one at a time, come to the microphone, these microphones not only amplify but they record for the purpose of the record. We just ask that you state your name and address for the record. Ms. Joan Parsons-Somebody told me a long time ago that when I got on the School Board that if you were very nervous when you were speaking it meant that you still have the courage of your convictions. So, I guess I have really got a lot of courage tonight. Town Clerk Dougher-We need a name and address please. Ms. Joan Parsons-Hillcrest Avenue, Queensbury This kind of takes us into a little different direction. Using the two thousand nine figures for Queensbury as the two thousand ten were not available and probably will not change much. And considering the Town Budget to be the same except for the two million dollars lost in tax credit plus considering the possibility of the County Budget to be up about six to seven million dollars, the owner of a two hundred thousand dollar home in Queensbury is facing about a five hundred and fifty dollar increase in taxes. Please help me if these calculations are SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 321 wrong. I know the County is still working on its budget but the gap does not seem to be lessening. I should mention that I was previously a thirty two year County employee, I finished my last four years as Warren County Administrator and I worked on these thth budget items. I talked to Dan on August 17 and again on August 28 regarding the 2010 Queensbury Tax rate for County purposes. I was concerned over the effect to the taxpayers over loosing the two million dollars sales tax credit. This has been a payment made for several years to reduce the County Rate. I also wrote a letter to the Town Board producing a spread sheet setting four scenarios and how the Queensbury County Tax could be affected based on lesser sales tax credits being applied. A five hundred thousand dollar tax credit would have resulted in a little of a fourteen percent increase while a zero payment would have resulted in a little over a nineteen percent increase. I asked the Town Board to consider the consequences of this action while there was still time to act. My estimates show that based on each one million dollars raised in the County either through increases in the actual budget or the Town not putting forth the tax credit would raise taxes about thirty five cents per thousand. On a two hundred thousand dollar assessed home that would be sixty nine dollars and eighteen cents for each additional million dollar raised. Right now we are loosing the two million dollars from the Town plus the County increase. Dan you assured me in our conversations that the Town Board would make some payment by way of tax credit to reduce these taxes however you wanted to see the third quarter sales taxes. I can understand that you wanted to handle things all at once but caution that I felt that this would be dangerous. st The September 1 deadline is passed for the Town to take action on any Sales Tax Credit for two thousand ten and the only option now is to use the reserve funds which we are now learning are not available. I urge the Town Board to consider that if reserved funds are being spent elsewhere in the budget such as Corinth Road. This increase will be devastating to many Queensbury Tax Payers. In my conversations with Dan and other Town Board Members I pointed out that the Town while relying on reserve funds was trying to pay next years expenses out of this years funds. In the past the current years sales tax was credit against the current years taxes even with a thirteen percent decrease in sales tax per the Post Star’s Article on Sales Tax, the number do not in my opinion substantiate the loss of the entire two million dollars sales tax credit to reduce County Taxes. A credit of next years sales tax against next years budget would in my opinion have been the prudent way to help the taxpayers. Now that this is not legally possible to do please review how you are spending your reserve funds and please reconsider this option before you adopt your budget. Supervisor Stec-Thank you Joan. Ms. Parsons-Thank you. Supervisor Stec-Is there anyone else that would address the Board on the Budget tonight, yes, Betty. Mrs. Betty Monahan-Sunnyside How close are you to what you projected in sales tax at what is coming in now and what will come in for the fourth quarter? Supervisor Stec-The quick answer to that Betty, the first quarter compared to two thousand eight was down three point eight percent, the second quarter was down six point th one percent, the third quarter deposit which went in October 30 last Friday was down fourteen percent for Queensbury. So, right now we are projecting that we may be a full half million dollars or more short in sales tax revenue for the year. Mrs. Monahan-So, you have projected for two thousand and nine exactly what you got in two thousand eight, that is what you put in the two thousand nine budget? Supervisor Stec-The last four budgets we have budgeted the same number, eight million dollars gross, in fact this year though because of these trends and we are concerned that they may be continue we cut the revenue estimate for the two thousand ten sales tax number to seven point eight five percent. It went down, we cut it a hundred and fifty thousand. I am hoping that it is not worse. But, and we would be guessing what the forth, the fourth quarter just started so I have no idea what the fourth quarter is going to be worse or better. I mean I cannot imagine it gets much worse than fourteen percent. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 322 From my conversations and the numbers that I have seen that is an unprecedented drop especially from the third quarter which is our big quarter. We were all hopeful that cash for clunkers was going to bail the entire Country out or at least New York State the way the sales tax works and we were hoping for an up quarter and each quarter this year has gotten progressively worse. Mrs. Monahan-The other thing is in your EMS budget third party billing is the figure that we are looking at a net or gross figure. In other words your billing company gets a certain amount I do not know how that is done if it is percentage or what? Supervisor Stec-That number, correct me if I am wrong Barbara, that number is the gross and our contract with the billing company is that they get ten percent of what they actually collect. Not, what was billed, but whatever money we actually collect, three point five million dollars, there has been two companies now so there may be a little but roughly speaking the three point five million that we have collected over the last four years rough three hundred and fifty thousand of that, ten percent goes back to the billing company. So that is the way they make their money. Mrs. Monahan-So, in two thousand and nine so far it is about eighty three thousand dollars. Supervisor Stec-Yes. Mrs. Monahan-Thank you. Supervisor Stec-They are happy, thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to address the Board? Mr. Tucker Mr. Pliney Tucker-41 Division Road, Queensbury I am going to talk on a touchy subject, right away quick. The Town Tax that you have been harping on for the last four years, can you find something else to talk about the next two years? Supervisor Stec-We are going to do our best. We are going to talk about how we cut expenses and found new revenue sources. I am tired about hearing myself talk about it too. No one gets excited about it anymore that we are the largest town in the state that doesn’t have a Town Tax. I do not know if you heard that Mr. Tucker-What is that? Supervisor Stec-We are the largest Town in New York State that does not have a town tax. Mr. Tucker-Ah come on. Supervisor Stec-True, true statement. Mr. Tucker-Answer the question you cancelled the Town Tax where did you get the money, did you dig it out of your pocket? No. Supervisor Stec-Sales Tax revenue and the fund balance from the sales tax. Mr. Tucker-You really didn’t create a miracle then. Supervisor Stec-The only people that can actually print money is the Feds. Councilman Brewer-He did not walk on water if that is what you are asking. Supervisor Stec-The Federal Government can print money, we do not have a printing press in the basement we just get, in fact there was an interesting article in the Post Star the last few days where Saratoga County is starting to question you know where does that number come from. The State tells you here is your check and but no one knows the backup or the detail behind that. I would like to think that the State is not holding back SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 323 any pennies from us. Saratoga County it was just a couple of days ago in the Post Star that they started wondering hey, maybe we would like to see where the, the backup behind where this money is coming from. Mr. Tucker-You probably could think anything you want the next thing is prove it. Right? Supervisor Stec-Yea. Mr. Tucker-..where are we going, how much surplus not special accounts but surplus that would be backing up the General Fund? Supervisor Stec-The General Fund right now including all reserved accounts, all accounts at the end of 08, which is the last audit that we had is about five point seven million dollars. But, a lot of that is in Capital Reserve or other reserve funds. Un-reserved, Un- restricted, fund balances a little over two point million dollars. Mr. Tucker-How much are you going to have to take out of that to balance the Town Budget? Supervisor Stec-About one point three million. That is a big reason why we are not, and that is why we are talking about not doing rebate this year, exactly. Mr. Tucker-We are talking about a million dollar surplus when you get all done. Supervisor Stec-Depending on how we finish the fourth quarter if we have a good fourth quarter for sales tax, historically and how we finish on the spending size. We have a budget we usually come in under that budget so that will be on the plus side but yea, I said it in the workshop two weeks ago when this came up briefly we are looking at an under a million dollar surplus. That is a little lean. If we have another bad year like we did this year that is going to be an issue. Mr. Tucker-I noticed that you were not in the article that was in the Post Star this morning when all the Town Supervisor’s would write in how they were balancing Supervisor Stec-Not all of them were bragging a lot, several of them were raising their taxes. There has been a story on Queensbury. Mr. Tucker-Nothing real serious, but I was glad to see that you were not in there, because Supervisor Stec-I was too. Mr. Tucker-What they are bragging about and then bingo we are going to get slapped real hard and there isn’t any special fund for that, right? Supervisor Stec-No. Mr. Tucker-Just the wallet. Well, I do not know, I think you have done a pretty good job. Supervisor Stec-Thanks Pliney. Is there anyone else that would like to address the Board this evening? Mr. Cathers Mr. Lincoln Cathers-47 Overlook Drive, Queensbury I think it’s a good job on the expenditure side of the budget. It is hard to quibble that they have done a good job there. But what seems to me most budgets have an income side too and I think it would be enlightening for people to see what the income side is and also like Pliney was mentioning people are very concerned about the reserve funds. I think they ought to be identified in any budget that is presented. Supervisor Stec-They are in the budget and I just ran over the highlights of what the gross numbers were but there is a revenue portion, this is the budget right here there is maybe fifty or sixty pages of it. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 324 Mr. Cathers-Well why couldn’t we have a summary of the income side of the budget where we balance off all these expenditures because it seems to me that is what people would like to hear because that could well result in an increase in taxes. The money has to come from somewhere and it is nice to see how the budget is made to balance because I think you are required to have a balanced budget aren’t you? Supervisor Stec-Yes. Mr. Cathers-Ok, well, just I don’t know maybe it is something that you can provide later or Supervisor Stec-Yea, I guess we could probably put something together like that. Mr. Cathers-Thank you. Supervisor Stec-You are welcome. Is there anyone else that would like to address the Board this evening? I would like to take this opportunity to thank several of the Department Heads that are here in attendance this evening, usually they are here and usually Town Employees outnumber the public and I think that is true this year although not as lopsided as in years past. But, Ryan Lashway our IT guy who is probably the youngest Department Head that we have lucky guy, Bruce Ostrander in the back right corner over there water and Mike Genier our Wastewater guy and Paul Naylor retired Highway Supt. not currently employed by the Town of Queensbury, former Councilman Pliney Tucker, Steve Lovering Parks and Rec., Mike Shaw from Wastewater, Stu Baker from Planning, and Chuck Rice from Building and Grounds. So, I thank you all for another solid year effort and I am glad that you are here tonight to hear the presentation see where we are, where we are going and where we need to be in the future. People are certainly concerned about revenues and expenses and we need to continue to work on that and the Board was good to work with as usual in this budget process and I appreciate their efforts on the budget and their guidance as well. Is there any other comment? Councilman Metivier-Just that Mike Genier is with the Cemetery Commission. Supervisor Stec-What did I say? Councilman Metivier-Wastewater. Supervisor Stec-Mike Shaw, Mike Genier, one of these days I will get it right Mike, I am sorry. Councilman Montesi-Who do you think is the largest sales tax provided in our town? Supervisor Stec-You mean what property? It is either the Great Escape or the Mall. Councilman Montesi-How about Walmart? Supervisor Stec-You are right Walmart is right up there. Councilman Metivier-Have you projected with the new Walmart coming in if that will do anything? Supervisor Stec-No. One, it is still an if and two by the time it gets built it will probably be late in two thousand ten it will not impact two thousand ten. It is not a silly question, but the answer is I do not think that it is going to impact two thousand ten. The Harvard MBA’s that run Walmart and oh by the way the Harvard MBA’s are the ones that run the World economy look where they have gotten us but you know, they are making a decision to make this investment, build another Walmart thinking that they are going to make more money. To me the pot of disposal income is only so big whether you have one Walmart or five Walmart’s you know are you going to generate more sales and thus more sales tax their math says that they will I hope they are right you know it kind of seems a little counter intuitive to me but I am not a Harvard MBA running Walmart. SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 325 Councilman Brewer-One of the largest corporation in the world. Supervisor Stec-One of the very largest. Any other public comment? Close this public hearing (7:35 PM) RESOLUTION ADOPTING ANNUAL TOWN BUDGET FOR 2010 RESOLUTION NO.: 346, 2009 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Tim Brewer WHO MOVED ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHEREAS, the Queensbury Town Board conducted a public hearing on th November 9, 2009 concerning the proposed 2010 Preliminary Budget and all interested persons were heard, and WHEREAS, the proposed 2010 Preliminary Budget sets forth the proposed 2010 salaries of the Town’s Elected Officials as required by New York State Town Law §27, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Queensbury Town Board hereby authorizes and directs that the 2010 salaries for the Town of Queensbury Elected Officials shall be as follows: TOWN SUPERVISOR 67,276. TOWN COUNCILPERSON (4) 17,382. TOWN CLERK 66,442. TOWN HIGHWAY SUPERINTENDENT 67,161. TOWN JUSTICES (2) 42,969. and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby adopts the 2010 Preliminary Budget presented at this meeting as the Town of Queensbury Annual Budget for 2010 with the following modifications: SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 326 and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Town Clerk to enter the Adopted Annual Budget in the minutes of the Town Board proceedings, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that a copy of the adopted Annual Budget for 2010 is attached and made part of this Resolution, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board hereby states its support of non-profit and other community organizations by providing funding as outlined in the Schedule of Contributions which is contained in the supporting documentation to the 2010 Adopted Budget, and BE IT FURTHER, RESOLVED, that the Town Board further authorizes and directs the Town Clerk to prepare and certify duplicate copies of the Adopted Annual Budget and deliver one copy to the Queensbury Town Supervisor so that he may present it to the Warren County Board of Supervisors. th Duly adopted this 9 day of November, 2009, by the following vote: AYES : Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec NOES : None ABSENT: None Supervisor Stec-Announced that the second meeting of the night will begin in the Supervisor’s Conference Room - discussion with two Fire Companies…right after this meeting. RESOLUTION ADJOURNING TOWN BOARD MEETING RESOLUTION NO. 347.2009 INTRODUCED BY: Mr. Ronald Montesi WHO MOVED FOR ITS ADOPTION SECONDED BY: Mr. Anthony Metivier SPECIAL TOWN BOARD 11-09-2009 MTG. #40 327 RESOLVED , that the Town Board of the Town of Queensbury hereby adjourns its Town Board Meeting. th Duly adopted this 9 day of November, 2009 by the following vote: AYES: Mr. Metivier, Mr. Montesi, Mr. Strough, Mr. Brewer, Mr. Stec NOES: None ABSENT: None Respectfully, Miss Darleen M. Dougher Town Clerk-Queensbury