The Lysander town board passed the 2015 budget at its Nov. 17 meeting, but not without a last-minute squabble between Councilor Bob Geraci and his colleagues on the town board.
During the work session preceding the meeting, Geraci said he was considering an amendment to the preliminary budget, which would appropriate an additional $250,000 from the fund balance and $100,000 from the highway department to lower taxes even further.
“It’s very shortsighted to use up all your fund balance,” Supervisor John Salisbury said, adding that the town would have to make up that $250,000 in the next budget.
Councilor Andy Reeves said the highway department needs all of the money it has been allocated in the 2015 budget to stay current on equipment purchases and continue upkeep of town roads.
“Do you want to go back to the times where we weren’t repairing the roads?” Salisbury said. “We are trying to make sure that the highway budget can catch up … repair the roads and try to preserve the roads we’ve got.”
Reeves questioned why Geraci waited until the day the town board was supposed to approve the budget to raise his concerns.
“Never was the question asked, ‘Let’s go back and visit highway,’” Reeves said.
Reeves urged his fellow board members to cooperate with one another.
“It’s really not a healthy, good way to try to work as a board of five of us,” he said of the board’s frequent infighting, which often pits Geraci and fellow Republican Councilor Roman Diamond against the other three councilors: the Republican Reeves, Democrat Councilor Melinda Shimer and former Democrat Supervisor Salisbury, who has changed his party affiliation to Conservative.
“Will the three of us [Salisbury, Reeves and Shimer] pass this [budget]? Absolutely. But not because it’s three of us and two of you. There’s five of us as a board,” Reeves said. “As a council, we need to start working as a unit.”
During the meeting, Geraci declined to officially introduce his amendment, but explained his idea to the public.
He said because taxes went up 37 percent for 2014 and 18 percent for 2013, he wanted to lessen the load on Lysander taxpayers even more.
“It’s good to have a rainy day fund, but the budget is a very responsible budget,” he said. He said the town shouldn’t have a need to use the fund balance because of the balanced spending of the 2015 budget.
Councilor Roman Diamond said he shared Geraci’s “philosophy.”
“There’s no perfect number, but I would love to cut taxes more than we already are,” Diamond said.
Ultimately, the budget passed unanimously. During the public comment period, Highway Superintendent Gene Dinsmore thanked Councilor Reeves for defending his department’s budget.
“He gets the idea and I appreciate that. That’s what we’re supposed to do — we’re planning ahead,” Dinsmore said.
He said the previous administration’s had a “seat of the pants” budget strategy.
Dinsmore said the Cornell roads study, which the town uses to decide how much money to set aside for each road to be repaired, is very specific and the town cannot simply subtract a general amount from the highway budget. The road repair budget would need to be reworked piece by piece.
“You need to specify: which one of these 37 roads would you like me to cut from the plan?” Dinsmore asked Geraci. “To make a frivolous assertion that we are going to cut $100,000 and ‘go as far as we can’ — what does that mean?”
Geraci replied that, since the budget had already been approved earlier in the meeting, Dinsmore’s comments were “gratuitous.”
Budget specifics
Lysander’s 2015 expenditures will total $4,963,026, which is an increase of $173,955 over this year’s adopted budget’s $4,789,071.
The tax levy for 2015 is down slightly to $2,895,862, a decrease of $16,519 from the 2014 levy of $2,912,021.
The tax rate inside the village of Baldwinsville will be 69.47 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. A resident within the village whose house is assessed at $100,000 will pay $69.47 in 2015 compared to their 2014 tax bill of $81.73.
Outside the village, the tax rate will be $2.09 per thousand. A Lysander homeowner with a $100,000 house will pay the town $208.85 in 2015, compared to $216.08 this year.
In other business
Lysander resident Jim Stirushnik asked if the board would reconsider its meeting schedule for 2015. The town’s website states that the board “normally” meets on the second and fourth Monday of each month, but in the past few months the board has held additional meetings more frequently and on first and third Mondays as well as a few Thursdays.
“I would appreciate the board coordinating with other boards,” Stirushnik said.
According to the schedule posted on townoflysander.org, the planning board usually meets the second Monday of the month, but occasionally meets on Thursday. The planning and zoning page on the town’s website says the planning board meets on the third Monday of the month and the zoning board of appeals meets the first Monday of the month as needed.
“It’s not possible for us not to conflict [with other boards],” Salisbury said. ‘We try not to conflict, but it happens.”
“I know you try, but I’d like you to try harder,” Stirushnik said.
A public hearing for the establishment of a traffic law for the town will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 15, at Lysander Town Hall, 8220 Loop Road. Town Clerk Lisa Dell explained during the board’s work session that the town does not currently have its own traffic law and instead follows New York state regulations. The establishment of a traffic law will allow the town to collect more revenue in traffic tickets.
