What does the Town Board think of the supe’s budget?

With Supervisor Sean Walter’s preliminary budget officially released earlier this week, the numbers are officially in: a 2.08 townwide tax levy increase is suggested by the supervisor in 2015. Due to projected increases in the assessed value on taxable land throughout the town, this is expected to raise the tax rate by 0.58 percent, or about $14 for a household at about $300,000 market value.

After all the discussion over the past few weeks, members of the town board spoke with the News-Review after the budget was released and offered their thoughts on the proposed spending plan.

Here they are.

Supervisor Sean Walter: “This buys us another 365 days to get leases out at EPCAL, get EPCAL subdivided, and another of payments with debt service on the decline. Basically, we’re in a race against time here to get EPCAL subdivided. This gives us one more year to do that.”

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio: “I can’t see voting for a budget that has $1.5 million in anticipated revenues with nothing in writing … Mark my words: we are going to run out of money to pay bills and get backed into a corner.”

Councilman John Dunleavy: “I haven’t made up my mind yet. But I’m not going to rely on those expected revenues. I’m not a gambler. I’m not gambling with taxpayer money. If some of these come through, OK. If they don’t come through, you took a big gamble.”

Councilman Jim Wooten: “I realize these are all one-shots coming in to fill the void, and the void is still there. And we’re filling it with anticipated revenues outside the tax base. But I think that’s a good thing.”

Councilman George Gabrielsen: “There are not any changes to this budget I would make whatsoever. I don’t think there’s much more we can do with it. In a strange kind of way, not going to the bridge loan and raising the tax cap made us look a little closer at every nickel and dime we could find.”