For many, the proposed $2.4 million 2010 Village of Cobleskill budget will be a wash—even as the tax rate drops 13.8 percent.
That’s because the spending plan proposes taking trash pick-up out of the budget and instead billing those who get the service about $225 a year.
“It’s a wash,” said Trustee Mark Galasso last Tuesday is a brief budget discussion.
For the first time, businesses, which have been sharing the cost of trash pickup through their taxes, but don’t receive the service, will no longer be charged and will actually see a reduction in what they pay the village.
The proposed budget predicts a .8 percent drop in assessed property values.
Copies of the proposed budget are available in the village clerk’s office.
Mr. Galasso said one of the budget’s biggest changes is moving the highway department to the town.
The decision to change how garbage is billed was made based on a letter from the State Comptroller’s office, he said, which called the village’s longtime practice of spreading the cost among all taxpayers—even those not receiving the service—“inappropriate,” but not illegal.
The cost of the service, which totals about $256,000, will now be billed quarterly on a per unit basis.
The budget includes $24,000 in rent to the town for office space and though wages are flat, the village projects a substantial increase in pension costs--$35,000, Mr. Galasso said, for the police Department alone.
Capital reserves remains the same as last year, $35,000.
General fund appropriations are set at $2,617,125 wuith the amount to be raised by tax levy, $1,655,851.
The tax rate per thousand of assessed value will drop from $12.79 to $11.02.
The tentative budget for the water fund is $678,000; the sewer fund, $848,000.