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Hebron up ‘almost’ two percent
Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell said the town’s budget will use nearly $100,000 in fund balance combined with a tax increase to complete the 2012 budget.
Campbell said the budget plan has changed little from when the tentative budget was created.
The tentative budget is expected to pass as the final budget after it is presented to the public at the November meeting.
No changes are anticipated following public input.
With the passage of the two-percent tax cap into law by the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Campbell said the plan for Hebron budgets is to get close to the cap number as possible without going over.
“We’re going to be right at the cap level,” Campbell said. “Basically, we’ve taken the 2 percent cap and fit in all the money that we could under it,” he said.
Tapping $50,000 from the general fund and $40,000 from the highway portion of the budget the town will bridge the gap between 2011 and 2012 without exceeding the 2 percent tax cap.
Campbell said the board plan remains to expend reserve funds in hopes to economy turns around some time soon.
“We’re going to keep using fund balance for the next three years and then hopefully we’ll be out of the woods,” Campbell said.
A distinct advantage Campbell said Hebron has over other municipalities is not being a part of the state retirement system, just one of the items other towns struggle to fund in tough time.
“We don’t have the pension plan, we never had it in the first place,” he said. State retirement costs are expected to rise 18 percent this year after rising more than 20 percent last year representing a major hurdle for budget planning.
Campbell said he thought Hebron was “in good shape” financially, considering the times, but added the days of using fund balance are limited.
“We need to get out of using (fund balance) or we’ll be in trouble,” Campbell said.
“I’m going to present it and I assume pass it at the November meeting; that’s when the public hearing is set,” Campbell said.
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