By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
At an April 10 public hearing on the proposed 2018-19 village budget, the Liverpool Board of Trustees announced that the budget includes raises for the mayor and the trustees. Mayor Gary White’s salary of $8,000 annually will go up to $10,000, and the trustees’ $4,000 salaries will increase to $5,000.
This will be the first raise for village elected officials since 2001.
“It’s uncomfortable talking about giving yourself a raise,” White said at the public hearing, “but the last raise was in 2001 when Marlene Ward was our mayor, and there’s really more and more work now required of our board. So I don’t think it’s out of line.”
Trustee Christina Fadden Fitch conducted an informal survey of comparable salaries across Onondaga County. She found, for instance, that the mayor of Baldwinsville and Fayetteville earn annual salaries of $15,000 and $17,500 respectively. In Baldwinsville, each of the six trustees are paid more than $5,400 annually.
“We are on the low side,” Fadden Fitch said. Some village boards are basically “oversight boards,” she said. “But we need working trustees.”
The raises, she said, are “a small price to pay to attract the kind of quality individuals we need on the board.” Inflation was also a factor, Fadden Fitch said.
As to the raise in pay, the board’s newest trustee, Jason Recor, said he “could take it or leave it. This is more of a volunteer job.”
White agreed. “It’s community service,” the mayor said. “But it does impact the time you can spend with your regular work and your family.”
The board floated the idea of raises last year and they received no negative comments from residents. “Everybody said we deserve it,” said Trustee Bradley Young.
The village’s fourth trustee, Matt Devendorf, called the raises “fair.”
While five citizens attended the April 10 public hearing, only one spoke, questioning the purchase of a new police cruiser. No one questioned the raises.
The proposed budget, expected to be passed at the board’s April 16 meeting, calls for general fund expenditures of $2,581,137.26.
While that figure represents an $112,000 increase in spending, village taxes will remain at its current rate of $12.45 per $1,000 of assessed value. For example, a home assessed at $100,000 will receive a village tax bill of $1,245, and each property owner must pay a $130 annual sewer-fund assessment.
To balance the 2018-19 budget, $172,042 will be appropriated from the village fund balance.
