Orangetown Departments Presenting Budget Proposals

Orangetown continued its work on the 2014 budget with a presentation by the Orangetown Police Department Tuesday night at town hall.

The Orangetown Police budget proposal takes into account salary increases built into the town's contract with the PBA, the purchase of six new police cars at approximately $200,000, increasing overtime costs and a projected jump of approximately 10 percent in pension costs while keeping the department at 83 police officers.

"The chief and the captains think we can do this," Orangetown Finance Director Jeff Bencik said. "If you go lower, they will want to talk about it. It's not an ideal budget."

Bencik said he made cuts from the proposal from the department, but the department budget would still go up approximately eight percent from 2013 without further cuts. That comes to $950,000, with around $400,000 coming from salary increases, $200,000 for the new vehicles and a $100,000 rise in overtime. The pension increase accounts for much of the rest.

"We're pretty tight on this," Bencik said. 

Many of the remaining departments will be making their budget proposals at a meeting beginning 9 a.m. Saturday, with more discussion expected at the regular town board meeting Sept. 9. That meeting was pushed up a day due to the primaries Sept. 10.

Bencik said he asked the department heads to include possible capital expenditures knowing that they would likely be the first thing cut. That is why, for example, the initial police department number came in at 15 percent, though it was never going to stay that high with the town focused on getting below the state-mandated tax levy cap of 1.66 percent. 

"I told them to tell me what you think you really need, especially on the capital side," Bencik said. "You can't put that off forever, but the biggest spending in each department that you can control is the capital outlay. All (departments) put in high numbers for capital outlay, which is easiest for us to see and discuss.

"I have not cut capital outlays. That's the long-term direction of the town. I want you to decide."

Councilman Denis Troy said that the department heads should be given instructions to come in with lower increases. 

"The department heads shouldn't come in at 15 percent," Troy said. "The direction comes from the top. If the direction is, 'Tell me what you want,' you're going to end up with some crazy increase."

Supervisor Andy Stewart said this is part of the process, not the destination, and pointed out that the 2013 budget came in under the tax cap, which was two percent for 2013. 

"No, we came in under budget," Troy said. "You came in at nine percent. To me, the initial directive is still wrong."

"We're still prior to the release of the tentative Supervisor's budget," Stewart said. "We are working with requests so far and we will start to look at how we can change those. It is important for the town board to see what the departments think are their real needs. We have a ways to go before we have any idea what the tax impact will be."

The members of the council have argued over the 2013 budget process before. The board initially passed the budget believing the increase would exceed the tax cap. Once the final calculations were made, Orangetown came in at an average increase of 1.66 percent, well below the cap. 

Councilmen Troy, Tom Diviny, Paul Valentine and Tom Morr, all Republicans, released a statement pointing to the 9.2 percent increase in Stewart's proposed Supervisor's budget, claiming that they worked it down from there. Stewart, the lone Democrat on the council, said that that his proposal was never meant to be the final budget and that all five members of the council worked to reduce the operating budget from 9.2 percent to 4.66. For more on the dispute that followed, click on this report on Patch. 

Stewart, Troy and Diviny are all up for re-election this fall.