Village Budget Challenges Reviewed at League Meeting

The good news to report about the proposed Scarsdale Village budget for 2011-12 is that our savvy and competent Village management has managed to contain costs while continuing to provide vital service to the residents. The distressing financial picture was reviewed at a meeting of the Scarsdale League of Women Voters on the morning of March 28, when they invited Village management and Mayor Carolyn Stevens to discuss the budget.

In attendance from Village Hall were Village Manager Al Gatta, Treasurer Mary Lou McClure and Deputy Village Manager Steve Pappalardo. They explained the difficulties they face in a time of rising mandated state costs and shrinking revenues.

McClure said it was “another year of difficult choices” and laid out where we stand:

• Over the last 2 years the village has lost $3.6 million in assessed values as real estate prices have fallen
• Revenues from mortgage taxes have shrunk by more than 50%from $2,723,000 in 2005-6 to an estimated $1,280,000 in 2010-11.
  
• Sales tax has also declined but is now recovering
• The Village now owes debt service on construction projects
• There have been dramatic increases in contributions to the pension fund and health care insurance funds

Despite these obstacles, overall budget growth has averaged only 2.44% over the last 5 years. Though interest income is nil, there has been a slight increase in sales tax and storm water permits and revenues from building permits are up $70,000 from the budget of $791,000.

Gatta and McClure were told by the state that the Village owed an estimated $3,584,000 for the 2011-2012 pension fund which is $1.4 million above the figure for 2010-11 but were skeptical about the number. They did their own analysis and found that there were 208 people receiving pension payments and believe that the contribution number may have been overstated. Therefore, they are putting an additional $1 million into the budget to fund pensions and will reconcile the numbers when the actuals are released in October 2011.

Pam Rubin, speaking for the LWV asked Gatta what capitol improvement projects were being deferred due to the shortage of funds. He listed the following:

• A generator and electric upgrade for Village Hall
• Renovations at the firehouse on Post Road where a driveway apron needs to be reinforced
• Road paving – only $320,000 is in the budget for 2011-12 and those fund are coming from state aid. Gatta reported that ideally the Village would spend $800,000 - $$1,000,000 on roadwork.
• Repair and lining of storm sewers
• A new roof for the library and repairs to the library plaza
• Reduced number of police cruisers and the purchase of hybrid vehicles
• Sheldrake River Basin drainage project
• A new fire pump
• The widening of Garth Road to increase the number of parking spaces and improve the traffic flow out of the Freightway garage
• The construction of a roundabout at the Heathcote Five Corners – if approved
• Conversion of streetlights to LED
• Reconfiguration of the intersection of Christie and Woodland Place

However, there was one bright spot in the report: next year’s budget includes $85,000 for new Village trees to replace the large number of trees the Village lost in the storms in 2010.

Rubin posed a question on the possibility of a tax revaluation and Gatta reported that an RFP for a revaluation will be presented to the Scarsdale Village Board in September, 2011. The County is now doing aerial photography to collect data on Village homes, however the total data collection for the county will take three years. Last year the Village handled 771 tax grievances and is hopeful that the number has reached a plateau. Gatta favors waiting to see if the County decides to do a revaluation while others want Scarsdale to move forward on its own.

Concerning a tax cap, Mayor Steven had some hopeful news. She reported that for now the threat of the state tax cap has abated, saying, “a tax cap is out of the budget now, however it is not off the table.” She encouraged residents to write to their elected officials to express their views.

However, if we a tax cap were enacted, Gatta suggested that we would consider the following:

• Charging fees for garbage collection
• Increasing fees for recreation programs so that they are fully funded by users.
• Spinning off the library

And to a question on consolidating services and purchasing, Gatta demonstrated that Scarsdale already does this, presenting the following examples:

• The County is now dispatching our fire department
• Scarsdale works with the Drug and Alcohol Task force of Bronxville, Eastchester, Tuckahoe.
• Scarsdale borrows police undercover operations from other communities.
• Officers utilize Eastchester services for firearms training.
• Cooperative purchasing agreements are in place with the schools, the county and the state.
• Recreation programs for special populations are run with neighboring communities
• We are sharing road paving and curbing with abutting communities
• The school uses the Village mechanical repair department for their vehicles
• Scarsdale belongs to Water District number two with Scarsdale, Mount Vernon White Plains and Yonkers.
• The Village is in a worker’s compensation consortium
• Scarsdale may join with other communities to do reassessment

In short, according to Gatta, “whenever there is an opportunity for a cooperative agreement, we grab it.”

Mayor Stevens then volunteered her view on consolidation of services with other Villages and questioned why we would want to do so. For instance, she said that

“Greenburgh has three fire chiefs who each earn $250,000 and they pay overtime. Here we have volunteer firemen and we have the highest ISO rating in the state – which is a factor in computing residents’ homeowners insurance. In her view, “if we consolidate we could jeopardize that rating.”

From the meeting, it appeared the Scarsdale is doing all it can do to hold the line on tax increases and maintain the Village. The projected Village tax rate increase is 5.52%for 2011-12, and sadly this bump doesn’t buy us any infrastructure improvements, programs or services.

Pictured Above: Carolyn Stevens, Al Gatta, Mary Lou McClure, Pam Rubin, Jane Veron

Photo Credit: Sara Werder