Foster Presents Council’s 2012 Budget Proposal, Few Speak at Hearing

Mayor Mary Foster presented the City Council’s 2012 budget proposal during a public hearing on Nov. 21. Only a handful of residents attended the hearing, and only three spoke on the

The council’s preliminary 2012 budget proposes a property tax levy increase of 2.4 percent ($334,597) on the current levy, which is one percent less than the would have raised the levy.

The Mayor said that the council’s budget is below the state’s 2 percent property tax cap mandate because Peekskill’s revenues come from both property tax and PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) payments from businesses operating on city-owned land and low-income and senior housing developments. Peekskill collects about $5.5 million in PILOT payments and another approximately $13.6 million from property taxes per year.

"The tax cap legislation looks at these two numbers as a whole," Foster said. “The increase we're suggesting is about half of what the state would have allowed us to do."

Also, pension costs are excluded from the states mandated propoerty tax cap.

The council’s budget would raise taxes by about $77 to $92 for the average Peekskill homeowner. (For details on how much you will pay,

The proposal would fill three currently vacant positions – two police officers and a mechanical equipment operator position – and create two new positions – a Director of Public Works/City engineer and a human resources position. City Departmental costs account for 1.86 percent of the budget ($553,316), which includes costs for new positions and back-filling vacant positions. No management staff will receive salary raises in 2012. 

The bulk of the city’s costs lie in rising pension and health care costs and an increase in debt service. But the mayor explained last night that the health care insurance rates from the state were set lower than the city had anticipated and the city recently received an arbitration decision on their 2009-2010 contract with the Police Benevolent Association, which requires police to pay ten percent more into their healthcare premiums. These savings helped them budget for other costs. But heath insurance will still cost the city about $4 million in 2012, the mayor said. The city pays almost $2.8 million in health insurance rates for current employees and $1.3 for retires health insurance, she said.

“We are looking at other options on how we can better reign in these costs,” Foster said.

The Council’s budget proposes to use only half a percent of the property tax increase for the central firehouse in 2012, instead of a full one percent like it did in this year’s budget.

“We are committed to the firehouse,” the Mayor said. City Comptroller Charlie Emberger explained to Patch that because the project is behind schedule the council did not feel it was necessary to take out the full one percent to go towards the project in 2012. The city also just applied for $15 million in Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council grant money for the project.

After the mayor’s presentation Monday night three residents spoke on the budget and other issues.

George Orndeck commended the city council on bringing the budget down from the city manager’s proposal but said he hoped they could bring it down even more to a zero or negative tax increase. He suggested that all contracts with vendors be placed online. Foster said she thought they were. Orndeck also asked about the city’s videographer position and asked if city officials are legally able to use the government channel to feature local businesses.

Deputy Mayor Don Bennett said that the city can use the local channel for that purpose as long as they don’t put a price point on the businesses services. The Mayor responded to Orndeck’s inquiry into the videographer position and said that the videographer is played a flat rate so it does not cost the city more to have him shoot the shows for channel 78.

Orndeck also asked the council to consider using more of the fund balance in the 2012 budget.

“We have in front of us a back log of tax certioraris we have to get settled. So we are reluctant to tap into existing fund balance and are cautious,” Foster said.

Resident Tina Bongar commented on several issues she has with city management and politics. She first said she was pleased with the current economic development specialist’s work thus far.

Next, Bongar asked for more transparency in the consultant/vendor selecting process. She specifically asked about the videographer position and told the council that a formal bid was not placed on the website for the contract this year. Bongar also asked about when infrastructure improvements are going to be considered.

The mayor said that the council is discussing infrastructure improvements, which would come out of the water fund.

Bongar then described problems with code violations in her neighborhood and asked why they are not dealt with more efficiently. Bongar told the mayor that illegal, overcrowded housing is ruining the quality of life in her neighborhood and claimed that the code enforcement officers retaliate against her for reporting it.

During Bongar’s approximately 20 minutes at the podium she also asked for a salary comparison study to be done for city management. She expressed frustration at what staff is paid, telling the Mayor that the approximately $160,000 (according to the mayor) that the city manager earns puts him in the top one percent of Peekskill, in terms of earnings.

"I want to know for my future Occupy City Hall campaign because this is probably the top one percent paid in the city," Bongar said.

The mayor said that such a study is in the process of being completed and that they are "trying to have a consistent way to access data" and to have a transparent system. Bongar raised her hands and said “yay, yay, yay,” expressing enthusiasm that the council is looking into staff salaries.

Lastly, a public school teacher and Peekskill resident Marta Brooks spoke about how she has seen improvements in Peekskill over the last ten years that she has lived here and said she thinks that the city is well run.

The Mayor said that the council tries to hold everyone accountable and encourage all to work well together.

The public hearing concluded.

The Council is required to adopt a budget by Dec. 1. They said they would take the comments made at the public hearing into account on their final budget.

 To watch the whole public hearing, click here. To view the presentation click on the PDF attached to this article.

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