With the mayor himself casting the deciding vote, the Village of Cobleskill decided 3-2 Tuesday to back his plan for a new fiscal year.
Two years and two budgets after taking over, Mayor Mike Sellers has come up with a $1.9 million, seven-month budget intended to make it easier for the village and the Town of Cobleskill to shares services.
Trustee Bill Gilmore, the man Mayor Sellers defeated for his job, initially skewered the idea—along with Mayor Sellers’ proposal to pull garbage pickup expenses from the budget and instead bill property owners $288 a year for the service.
Calling his concerns about the plan “very serious” when they were presented last Tuesday, Mr. Gilmore was more conciliatory—but just as concerned—yesterday when Mayor Sellers and trustees met in a special budget workshop at Mr. Gilmore’s request.
Rather than tackle budget specifics, however, the group again focused on the issues of the fiscal year and trash.
“The budget sort of rests on these two legs,” said Trustee Sandy MacKay.
Trustees decided not to pull garbage expenses from the budget in favor of a user fee, but they’re still undecided on what to do with it.
“The user fee only makes sense if it includes an incentive for more recycling,” Mr. MacKay said.
Like everything, though, that’s more complicated than it sounds.
Mr. MacKay had looked into selling bags for trash and letting that finance pickup until haulers told him they might be better able to cut costs by using containers that could be loaded into their trucks by one man instead of two.
Trustee Carol McGuire reminded them that Mr. Gilmore was looking into the possibility of the village taking over the trash job again.
“I feel this was sprung on us,” she said. “Any change [trash or fiscal year]…the first date should be January 2010. I think we need more time.”
Trustee Mark Galasso, however, said there’s no time like now for both changes.
“If we do things the same old way, they’ll never change,” he said. “Ninety-five cents on the dollar here is pre-determined. The amount of discretionary spending is so infinitesimal…so inconsequential…”
Mr. Galasso argued that by putting the village and town on the same fiscal year, it will be easier for residents to compare the two—and easier to see that they’re being “double-billed” for some services because the town puts its share of some costs on all of the taxpayers—not just those living outside of the village.
One big concern is that the calendar change would mean residents could get town, county, and village tax bills in January—just after Christmas and when their heating bills are the highest.
“I talked to a lot of people and from all quarters, I heard that it would be an extreme hardship,” Mr. Gilmore said last Tuesday.
Trustees have since learned, however, that with the new year, they can split the village bills into two payments, which will ease that problem somewhat.
“People will be paying a lot less in June,” Mr. Galasso said. “The overall impact is not going to be what people are making it out to be.”
Mr. Galasso, Mr. MacKay and Mayor Sellers voted for the fiscal change; Mr. Gilmore and Ms. McGuire, against it.
In light of the change, trustees then discussed the need for multiple public hearings on it; the first will be 7pm Tuesday, April 15 and it could remain open for additional hearings on subsequent nights if there’s the kind of turnout there was last year.
The proposed budget will also be re-calculated to show expenses for both the 12-month and seven-month year so they can be compared against each other.
The village will also talk to its trash hauler about renewing that contract for seven months so it can make any changes before the start of 2009.