The Clay Town Board unanimously approved its 2012 annual budget at its regular meeting Monday, Nov. 7. The budget eliminates the enhanced services agreement with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department, establishes a 4.2 percent tax increase and adds no new positions, said Supervisor Damian Ulatowski.
The total budget is $12,120,136, a decrease of $962,229 compared to 2011. It also represents a decrease of $46,448 from the initial tentative budget Ulatowski presented at the board’s Oct. 3 meeting. At that time, the tax impact for the average homeowner outside the village was estimated to be $8.14, an increase of 3.4 percent, while village residents would see an increase of $25.74 a year. As approved, the final budget calls for a $9.87 tax increase on a $100,000 home outside the village; homeowners inside the village will pay an additional $20.34.
Comptroller John Shehadi said the increase to taxpayers outside the village benefited those inside the village.
“We shifted things around to take the sting out of the increase for those inside the village of North Syracuse,” Shehadi said. “If you live outside the village, you’re still looking at a tax increase under $10. But inside the village, we managed to bring it down by five bucks, which is pretty significant.”
Ulatowski said he was happy with the budget, despite the tax increase.
“This is one of the most comfortable budgets I’ve ever had to work with,” he said. “It was really looking at that one line item, the $1.5 million from the sheriff’s department. Taking that off is what really made the difference. I didn’t get one phone call or e-mail from residents concerned about it. I got two favorable ones saying this was the right thing to do. The contract was a great baby step moving us from having our own police force to just having the sheriff’s department. They did a great job and I think they’ll continue to do a great job.”
Residents also agreed with the move.
“That was a good move,” said Russ Mitchell of Clairmont-Four Seasons. “At first I didn’t think so. I was concerned about what people were going to think, because we told them that they were going to have the same coverage, and taking away the enhanced [patrols] was going to put some other ideas in people’s heads. But after looking at this whole thing and knowing what they did and checking it out, it wasn’t worth $1.5 million to keep two people 24/7 in our town.”
