Tarrytown Budget Capped; Sleepy Hollow's Not

With only a few weeks to go until muncipal budgets must be approved, one village is juggling cuts against a big tax levy increase while the other is sitting pretty, well within the requisite two percent.

Sleepy Hollow’s budget was dubbed “ugly” before it was even revealed and remains so now that the board unanimously passed a tax cap levy override. Uglier still would be the cuts required if the village decided to abide the two percent rule.

Even once they've tossed the tax cap, there will likely be painful cuts. A subcommittee of Trustees , including the loss of a part-time clerk, recreation assistant and department of public works employee, as well as the elimination of rec department overtime. Cuts that still brought the budget in over the tax cap.

These recommendations are ever-shifting as there's talk now of reinstating a public works employee and keeping the paid EMTs whose continuation was also uncertain.

"It's 100 percent in limbo," said Village Administrator Anthony Giaccio who predicts it will remain so until literally the final hour. He expects Mayor Ken Wray will call a special session on Tuesday, April 30, to adopt the budget the day before its May 1 deadline.

The “duking it out” process Wray described has been taking place at regular committee meetings and now before the public. The public hearing held this week will continue next week on Tuesday April 16 at 7 p.m. in Sleepy Hollow Village Hall.

This week, about a half-dozen citizens got up to voice their requests (cap staff salaries, said one; keep recreation programs, said another).

Giaccio, as Superintendent Dr. Howard Smith has of the school budget, bemoaned the "out of our control" expenses. The pie chart (pictured) shows that 45 percent of village expenditures go to employee benefits.

"We've dropped 12 employees since I've been here, in five years," Giaccio said. "There was talk [at the board meeting this week] about more police presence, so what do we do? With these unfunded mandates, other than eliminate positions there's not much you can do."

Meanwhile, the GM development sits far off on the horizon, looking like the distant answer to a budget officer's prayers. "It's like a dike we're putting our finger in," Giaccio said, "until this thing happens."

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In Tarrytown, a public hearing to discuss the tentative budget is set for Monday, April 15 at 8 p.m., though if anyone from the public offers input, or even comes, remains to be seen.

The Tarrytown budget is well within the tax cap levy. The village could increase the tax levy by $1,081,435 and still fall within the mandated increase level. Instead they are only raising it $375,072, writes Village Administrator Mike Blau in the budget's introduction.

Tarrytown faces the same "beyond our control" costs Sleepy Hollow, writes Blau, noting increases required by union contracts, pensions, health care, electricity, gasoline, etc. However, unlike Sleepy Hollow, they are flush with an increase of revenue, up 7.8 percent from last fiscal year, which offsets these growing costs. There were “carry it forward” factors they can enjoy from last year and “growth based upon construction.”

Still, Blau admits Tarrytown is dented by hard economic times. Blau, quoting Moody’s, states that governments generally see a two-year lag behind the private sector when it comes to ups and downs in the economy. Tarrytown has been able to survive this with staff reductions and no service cuts; this year they're happy to report no staffing cuts. The links to each section of the village budget can be found here.

Sleepy Hollow’s budget has no such textual introduction to the state of things, announcing itself instead with a picture of the headless horseman. You can see the full budget here.

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