Taxpayers in the town of Cicero will pay an additional $12.73 per $100,000 house in 2015, according to the budget passed by the town board by a vote of 4 to 1 Wednesday, Nov. 12.
The $12,057,166 budget represents a $346,378 increase over 2014. It includes a 2.94 percent tax levy increase, which Supervisor Jessica Zambrano said is $107,000 above the tax cap. The board voted earlier this month to approve a local law to exceed the cap.
Zambrano said the budget also included significant cuts to all town departments.
“Every single town department saw cuts this year because we had so many fiscal challenges,” she said.
“Most of the feedback the town board received from the public was that they did not want a large increase in property taxes. Most of the town was also concerned about using excessive amounts of fund balance to square the budget.”
The approved budget uses $483,000 from the town’s fund balance, the smallest amount in the last five years.
“We think this [budget] is reasonable,” Zambrano said.
Councilor Mike Becallo was the sole councilor to vote against the budget. Becallo had presented an alternative budget that didn’t cut services and included savings of $1 million, but Zambrano said that proposal didn’t take into account mandated increases to the town’s three union contracts. She also said his proposals didn’t show where the savings would come from, nor did he share his proposal with the rest of the town board until the last minute.
“Mike was the only councilor who did not engage in budget discussions,” Zambrano said. “He never reached out to anyone on the town board or the budget officer or the comptroller to discuss his ideas or try to gain consensus on any item. Mike’s proposal did not include specifics of how to save $1 million and stay under the cap. It is delusional to think he provided some kind of comprehensive plan.”
In a letter to the editor (see page 4), Becallo’s business partner, Tim Kelly, decried the adopted budget and praised Becallo, partly because Becallo was the only councilor willing to take a pay cut. Zambrano said, again, this is incorrect.
“He did propose cuts on Oct. 29, but no one on the town board agreed to that except me,” she said. “The next morning I was advised that two other councilors did not want to accept pay cuts. They feel they are working hard and deserve the 2 percent. This issue was never raised again until [Wednesday] night by Mike.”
And Becallo will still receive a pay raise, despite his objections to it in public.
“He will get a pay raise because it would be illegal not to give it to him unless there is a specific town board resolution made to pay him differently,” she said. “Then we would have to make a budget amendment. He can, of course, donate his raise back to the town.”
In his letter, Kelly also lamented the lack of inclusion in the budget for any money for road repairs.
“How about this: they budgeted $0 for roads and will instead inevitably borrow the money sometime this year, mark my words, further burdening the residents of Cicero with even more debt,” Kelly wrote.
Zambrano said the board has not included those repairs in the budget for the last two years because it would negatively impact the tax levy.
“It would dramatically increase the tax levy for the $800,000 per year committed by the previous town board,” she said. “A suggestion was made this year that there be a referendum to authorize the expenditure, so that is what this town board wants to do.”
The town has implemented the Cornell Roads Program to address the issue, as well as a 20-year plan to fix the town’s roads.
