By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
The Cicero Town Board’s public hearing about exceeding the state-mandated tax increase cap grew heated last Wednesday as Supervisor Mark Venesky exchanged words with residents and Democratic town board candidates.
Venesky said the average Cicero homeowner’s property taxes will increase by about $19 next year, or the cost of two packs of cigarettes.
“I don’t smoke,” one unidentified resident said from the audience.
Resident and Cicero Planning Board member Don Snyder reminded his neighbors that the town of Cicero accounts for only a small portion of their tax bill.
“I pay a lot more than that to the county. I pay a lot more than that to the school,” he said. “I certainly cannot see how we can run this government without going over the tax cap.”
Tom Le Roy said a tax increase for residents is “essentially a pay decrease.”
“We have cut everywhere we could cut,” Venesky said.
“There’s always waste somewhere,” Le Roy said.
Venesky said the town is still paying off millions of dollars borrowed by previous administrations.
“Our plan is to pay down $1.3 million of the town’s debt next year,” he said.
Venesky said the town also has to deal with unfunded mandates from the state, such as last year’s required cancer insurance for volunteer firefighters and this year’s changes to court paperwork.
“Our legislature in New York state likes to push costs down to the town without giving us a vehicle to pay for it,” he said.
Venesky said labor negotiations and the 2017 highway garage referendum also drive costs upward.
Joyce Villnave, who is running for one of two open seats on the town board, questioned whether the board would need to raise taxes beyond the tax cap. She criticized Venesky for supporting a salary increase for the town supervisor, which he said was required not for himself but to attract a more qualified pool of candidates for future supervisors.
Villnave also said the town could have avoided some of the tax increase by downsizing the highway garage project.
“For two years, I’ve listened to you say that it was the referendum that put it over the budget,” Villnave said.
“I’m not here to argue,” Venesky said.
“That’s what you’re doing, Mr. Supervisor, you’re arguing with her,” said Nate Riley, who is also running for town board.
“You delaying it for a year caused the cost increase. I’m sick of your lies,” resident Deborah Gardner said from the audience.
Venesky banged his gavel and told Gardner he would have her removed if she did not sit down.
“You’re very critical, but you have no solutions,” Venesky said to Villnave.
Resident Ray Schader said he was “getting sick and tired of hearing about this new garage” being blamed for increasing taxes. He said the existing highway garage was built for $800,000 in 1965.
“That garage out there is over 50 years old. I can show you a map where we have 10 times more streets in the town of Cicero than we had when that garage was built. … We’ve got 10 times more equipment and everybody complains,” Schader said. “I don’t know what today’s dollar [amount] would be for $800,000, but that’s what that garage cost.”
Nate Riley said the town could “do a lot better when it comes to repaving our roads.”
“Most people wouldn’t mind their taxes going up if they were paying for essential government services. I think one of the essential government services that we’re not providing for is roads,” Riley said.
Riley said the town is not following the Cornell road study and should put more money toward paving the town’s nearly 130 miles of road.
“Unless you sit on this board … you don’t know a thing what you’re talking about,” Highway Superintendent Chris Woznica said. “It costs over $200,000 a mile to pave a road. … I can pave it cheaper. I can just do an overlay of oil and stone. But are your neighbors going to be happy with that? Or do you want blacktop?”
Town Councilor Judy Boyke, who is running for town supervisor, noted that home resale values have not kept up with assessment values and that the assessment grievance process is complex.
As for the highway garage referendum, Boyke, who carried petitions for the referendum in 2017, said it was important to her that residents had a voice in the process.
“I felt it that the town should have the opportunity to vote. It had nothing to do with the fact of not having a new highway garage,” she said.
The board voted 4-1 to approve the tax cap waiver, with Boyke voting no.
Boyke asked why the town was not posting drafts of the budget online. Venesky said having multiple, unfinished versions of the budget available would cause confusion among residents.
Town budgets must be finalized by Nov. 20, according to New York state law.
