Towns crunching budgets

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By Krystle S. Morey and Matthew Saari

Granville Town Supervisor Matt Hicks said it best about budget season: “Every year you are trying to sharpen your pencil to try to target the number as best you can. A lot of them are still a bit of a moving target, but in general, it’s pretty straight forward.”
Each fall, town officials are tasked with “developing and adopting a structurally balanced budget that accurately estimates revenues and expenditures of the town for the coming fiscal year,” as stated in the “Town Topics” bulletin that is distributed to local governments by the Association of Towns of the State of New York.
The deadline to file tentative budgets with the town clerk was last Saturday, Sept. 30. Many area towns, including Granville and Whitehall, have already held budget workshops and have scheduled public hearings so taxpayers can sound off and ask questions.
Copies of proposed 2018 budgets for all towns are available for public inspection.
Towns must hold public hearings on preliminary budgets by Nov. 9. Final budgets must be adopted no later than Nov. 20.
Here’s a look at local municipalities’ plans for fiscal year 2018:

This is only a preview of the story published in the Whitehall Times. To read the full story, pick up a print copy of this week’s paper at the newsstand or read it online here.

 

This is only a preview of the story published in the Granville Sentinel. To read the full story, pick up a print copy of this week’s paper at the newsstand or read it online here.