2009-2010 Village Budget is Final

Unify Piermont (unifypiermont@live.com)

The 2009-2010 Village Budget is Final

As expected by Unify Piermont, the Village Board approved the budget on April 28, 2009 unchanged from the previous budget hearing and without incorporating any of the suggestions and concerns expressed by residents. This was not a surprise.

What was a surprise was that the Mayor did not allow any resident comments to be heard, although the Village Board did take the opportunity to pat themselves on the back once again and lecture residents on the Board's fiscal prudence.

The approved budget increases spending 3.4% which seems high given the current economic conditions. However, one budget may not present a fair picture. Let's look at a longer time frame, the period the Village Board was referring to during their extended period of self-congratulation.

As the chart shows, spending has almost doubled in the past ten years. But maybe the spending increases bear some relationship to inflation during this same ten year period.

Let's compare Village spending to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during this same ten year period.

The CPI went up 25% during the 8 years available, Village spending 88%. It seems unlikely that inflation will catch up this year and next.

Typical Resident Comments Received by Unify Piermont:

"We are outraged with the huge budget."

"Something has got to give. The communication between the mayor, board and village is awful. I am sick to death of meetings where the response to a question is that the questioner should have been at a prior meeting. That is not the way to encourage involvement (wait, maybe that's the agenda...)"

"Most of the Boards comments are gibberish and spoken among themselves. The residents have a difficult time hearing their comments. Since they bond for everything under the sun, why not bond for a microphone so we can clearly hear what they have to say."

You decide if Village spending is excessive, Unify Piermont believes it is.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.

Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to create a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes, Village debt and the lack of any meaningful communication from our Village Board; then e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at http://www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com/.

Village of Piermont - Condensed Budget (double click to enlarge)

Village Employees - Wages & Benefits

UNIFY PIERMONT (unifypiermont@live.com)

Village Employees – Wages & Benefits

The Journal News recently published a list of the Top 50 highest paid employees in Orangetown. Unify Piermont learned that the same information was submitted to the paper for Piermont employees and thought that Piermont taxpayers would be interested. Unify Piermont also thought that it would be useful to know how many people are on the Village payroll so the Mayor can answer this question the next time he is asked.

The answer, Mr. Mayor, is thirty six (36). Nine in the Police Department (one of which is part-time), eight in the DPW (one of which was part-time last year), five on the Village Board, three in the Village Clerk’s Office, three in Planning, Zoning and Building, two in Village Justice (the Judge and Court Clerk), two attorneys, two in the Youth Commission or Recreation, one Fire Inspector and one Assessor/Consultant.

Not on the payroll, but also performing services for the Village are the Auditor ($18,000) and the Engineer ($55,000). Unify Piermont understands that the Village Attorney also receives payments from direct billings which are not included in the payroll system, but which are budgeted at an additional $47,000 annually.

The top ten highest paid employees in the Village for 2009 are, as expected:
Police Chief $156,557
Police Sergeant $135,304
The six full-time policeman $121,484 (average)
DPW Supervisor $103,931
Village Clerk $74,000(*)
(*) The tenth position would go to the Village Attorney if the extra billings from his law firm were included in payroll.

The total Village payroll for calendar 2009 was just under $2 million. Not included in this number are items variously described as employee benefits, retirement, hospitalization, eyeglasses, service awards, workman’s compensation, life insurance and dental insurance. All together these add just under $1.1 million to the budget or approximately 55% more in compensation costs.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.

Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to elect a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations. A Village Board which communicates with its residents, providing useful information on a timely basis.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes, Village debt and the lack of any meaningful communication from our Village Board; than e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at http://www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com/.

More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

(unifypiermont@live.com)
Village of Piermont Budget
Or there is more than one way to skin a cat

The Village Board has proudly announced that they have kept the tax increase for next year to less than 1%. Unify Piermont would have preferred to see the tax decrease we recommended, but can take pride in the fact that at least some of our recommendations are being implemented. We are convinced that, without our pressure, Piermont Taxpayers would not have seen even this minor victory.

The laws in New York require municipalities to have a balanced budget. The threat of taxpayer revolts and the desire of elected officials to keep their jobs both act as a brake on unbridled spending by elected officials. But there is more than one way to skin a cat as our Village Board has demonstrated.

The Village Board in Piermont has found two additional ways to increase spending more than taxes. Both involve “borrowing” against the future.

As the first chart above shows, the Village has been on a borrowing spree. The last bond was for $2 million and is repayable over 15 years. The Village Board has built in automatic tax increases through 2023 no matter what happens to the economy.

The second chart shows how much of our future taxes are committed to debt repayment if no more debt is issued.

Assuming Piermont loses its debt dependency habit, we taxpayers will still be paying over a half million dollars in debt costs for the next few years.

How likely is this? It is hard to believe the Village Board has signed up for debt rehab. They passed a resolution at their last meeting authorizing a further $360,000 in Bond Anticipation Notes. When residents objected, the Mayor observed that it was “cheap money”. One resident astutely noted “cheap money” was what has gotten us into the current economic crisis. The Board assured the residents that the money will not be borrowed unless absolutely necessary. Time will tell.

The second method of “borrowing” against the future is more devious, but related. It involves overtaxing a group of residents knowing full well that the Village will lose the resulting lawsuits and have to pay the money back. The current debt level of $4.3 million includes funding for four or five of these “paybacks”. More lawsuits are still outstanding, waiting to be resolved.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.

Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to create a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes and Village debt; than e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at http://www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com/.

Good News, Bad News

UNIFY PIERMONT (unifypiermont@live.com)

Good News, Bad News
(A report on the Village Budget and some suggestions)

The Village Board held their public hearing on the proposed budget for 2009-2010 on April 7th. The final budget is scheduled to be adopted at the Village Board Meeting on April 28, 2009. A second budget hearing will be held on Monday, April 20 at 7 PM in Village Hall thanks to the timely arrival of our first mailing, resident concerns expressed at the previous meeting and the Mayor’s newly found fiscal rectitude.

The Good News is that the proposed budget has held the tax increase for next year to 2.6% (2.3% for most of us) with a spending increase of 3.6%. This seems like a large spending increase in these recessionary times. Please note that the schools are talking about spending increases of .54% (Nyack) and 1.34% (SOCSD). However, the tax increase is substantially below the 8% we have been averaging for the past nine years. It brings the ten year average down to 7.4%, still well in excess of double the inflation rate.

How was this accomplished? As the Village has noted, 66% of the Village costs are personnel related. The Village has put in a wage and benefit freeze for next year.

Is it realistic? The Bad News is that more than half the personnel costs are in the Police budget and they have not agreed to the wage freeze. The PBA contract expired May 31st last year and to quote from the Mayor’s memo which is posted on the Village website “the Village has offered a three-year contract proposal that includes a modest increase in base salary for each of the three years through 2010.”

And “The PBA has rejected the offer that the Village presented and has elected to exercise its right to enter into Interest Arbitration to resolve this dispute.” To start with, the Village has already offered a modest increase so an expectation of no increase at all on arbitration is unrealistic.

To quote from the Deputy Mayor’s presentation given earlier this year:
“Binding Arbitration – NYS Civil Service Law 209
-Final decision regarding unionized employee salaries is determined by an unelected, unaccountable arbitrator.
- Decision making latitude of arbitrator is unconstrained by the municipality’s fiscal condition or ability to pay, and as a result, awards frequently do exceed the ability to pay.”
Please note that the emphasis was added by the Deputy Mayor, not Unify Piermont.

Given the past results of arbitration and that the award will be retroactive to May of last year, can we realistically expect no increase in these costs next year? Of course not and Unify Piermont sees more debt ahead. Why would they do this if it is unrealistic? Well, it is an election year.

Unify Piermont also notes that hospitalization costs have been reduced 9% while the Deputy Mayor’s presentation noted such costs have “increased by 75% in villages statewide” between 1999 and 2005. Our congratulations to the Village in achieving this, something no other municipality has been able to do. A few other expense categories also seem unrealistically low given current economic conditions.

Then, you might ask, if wages and benefits have been frozen, hospitalization reduced 9% and personnel costs make up 66% of the budget, what accounts for the spending increase of 3.6%? While there are minor ups and downs elsewhere, the most obvious cause is debt. The proposed budget has scheduled debt payments (principal and interest) over $200,000 higher than last year. If everything else was flat, the Village debt obligations alone would have increased spending 4.6%.

On the revenue side, a number of items also appear suspect to Unify Piermont, but let us focus on just two. The proposed budget includes $130,000 of funds appropriated from the $2 million bond issued last year. Apparently, we borrowed too much and the excess is being used to reduce next year’s taxes. Is it fair to burden the taxpayer with excess debt so the Village can make the following year’s tax increase look better? Remind yourself it is an election year.

The second item is both Good News and Bad News. The Mayor announced he would like to reduce the tax increase to 1% by utilizing some of the Fund Balance (accumulated surplus). This is the good news.

Question: Was the arrival of Unify Piermont’s first mailing calling attention to the tax and debt problem in Piermont on the Monday before the public hearing on next year’s budget a coincidence? Answer: No.

Question: Was the Village Board’s new-found interest in minimizing the tax increase for next year a coincidence and completely unrelated to the arrival of our first mailing? Answer: You decide, but don’t forget it is an election year.

Now for the bad news. The fund balance stands at $283,000 at the end of fiscal 2008-2009. This means that we have been cumulatively overtaxed (or over indebted) in prior years by that much. The balance is a year old since it apparently is not possible to project the fund balance for the current year, which ends in less than two months, until September.

The previous Deputy Mayor has stated (quote from the Village Board Minutes of April 29, 2008) “the Village has an excellent accounting system that allows the numbers and balances to be checked daily.” Apparently, it is not as excellent as he thought. Can you imagine working in private industry where 90% of your revenues and expenses are known to a certainty, where your fiscal year ends in less than 60 days and telling your boss we won’t know the results for another six months? You would soon be looking for another job.

Given that the accounting system is not as excellent as it might be, Unify Piermont agrees that a small reserve is prudent. We also note that the proposed budget includes a contingency of $100,000. This year’s budget (the year ends on May 31st) includes a contingency of $85,000 (of which less than $3,000 has been appropriated as of April 3, 2009).

To achieve the newly proposed 1% tax increase requires taking $60,000 from the fund balance leaving $223,000. Why not decrease taxes 1%, taking $137,000 from the fund balance? This still leaves $146,000, plus whatever the Village adds this year, to cover the inevitable PBA settlement costs. And the money belongs in the taxpayers hands, not the Village Board’s hands where, as one resident noted, it is more likely to be spent than not.

On a related issue, Village Debt and the Capital Budget, there is also Good News and Bad News. The good news is that, for the first time ever, we have a Capital Budget.

The bad news is that we are anticipating adding more debt, further burdening our future taxes. In fact, the same Village Board meeting dealing with the proposed budget had another agenda item to authorize $360,000 in Bond Anticipation Notes. After resident complaints and a very timely suggestion that most of what we need right now, approximately $50,000, could be handled by the accumulated surplus, this was put off. What we need right now is money to pay the engineering fees on a project that it now appears will not go forward. That is another subject for another day.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.
Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to elect a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations. A Village Board which communicates with its residents, providing useful information on a timely basis.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes, Village debt and the lack of any meaningful communication from our Village Board; than e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at http://www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com/.

Rockland Review, April 10,2009

Yes, John we are serious about reducing taxes, spending and debt in the Village of Piermont. Otherwise, thanks for a great article reprinted below:


From Rockland Review, Friday, April 10, 2009
Natives Are Restless in Piermont
Commentary by John lurica
It has been brought to my attention that an uprising may be starting down in Pier­mont with a mailing last week by a group calling itself Unify Piermont. The members of the group seem to be a cross section of the people of the Village from each political party. The unifying force holding this group together is based upon the high taxes and high spending in the Vil­lage of Piermont.
The mailing itself was fairly simple in scope, first telling the reader that the Village debt has increased from 1.5 million dollars to 4 million dollars in 5 years. The letter points out that the repayment of this debt adds $700,000 in Piermont prop­erty tax payments each and every year in the future. The letter goes on to compare the situation in Piermont against other Villages in the County. The communication com­pares Piermont which has an annual budget of 4.7 million dollars, which is a spending of $1,741 per resident, to Nyack which has almost the same budget amount Nyack spends 4.9 million dollars, but with its much larger size,
and nearly the same budget amount, spends only $700 per resident. The lowest Vil­lage spending in the list was Chestnut Ridge, spending a mere $342 per resident. The per resident spending for the Villages of Pomona and Suffern was $567 and $524 respectively.
The mailing asked for people to take an interest. It wanted to know if people wanted to become involved or if they wanted to receive future mailings. For future mailings, one could call 845-613-7675, leaving a name and address or sign up by email at UnifyPiermont@Live.com. The group also has a web site, which had very little on it, because I viewed it on the first day only moments after it went online. The web site is at www.unifypiermont. blogspot.com.
I have not yet figured out, what this is all about. Are these people serious about running a challenge in the next election? Is this a mailing to feel out to see how people will respond to this information, with the Unify Piermont People going on from there? In any case, the whole thing is worth watching. Many of the Unify Piermont People have ran for office before, and sometimes on opposite sides. Now that they seem to be working together and things may become a bit more in­teresting. The reason why I have trouble deciding if the senders of the communica­tion are serious is because the flyer was written in a significantly passive voice, making it easy for any of the promoters to step away from it in the future. There is nothing I like better than a good competitive campaign. Watching things like this are better than watching the Super Bowl.
It was back in the early 70's that Piermont had an extremely interesting Village Board. At that time I was the Village Engineer, and the Board consisted of one Democrat, one Republican, one Conservative, one Right to Lifer, and one from the United Citizen's Party. There were no covert activities in the days of that Board. With five different philosophies, it was impossible to predict what the outcome of a meet­ing was going to be. Each meeting was an adventure where everything was fully discussed in public.

Voter Registration Information and E-Mail Response

Unify Piermont (unifypiermont@live.com)

Voter Registration Information and E-Mail Response

The response to our mailing has been so overwhelming that we apologize if we have not confirmed your addition to our e-mail list as yet. We are responding individually to each request in the order received and we will get to yours soon if we have not done so yet.

A number of respondents have asked about Voter Registration so we are providing the information which follows. To download a Voter Registration Form in PDF format, merely click on the link below (either English or Spanish) in the Obtaining A Voter Registration Form section that follows. You may also be able to get the application at our local Post Office.

Unify Piermont has been advised by the Rockland County Board of Elections that sending a copy of your New York State Driver's License or other photo ID with your Voter Registration Form will greatly expedite the processing of your application.

You can also obtain an Absentee Ballot form at the County website if you are going to be out of town for the Primary (September 15, 2009) or the General Election (November 3, 2009).

Unify Piermont has been informed by the Rockland County Board of Elections that the poll site has been changed from Piermont Village Hall to Piermont Public Library, 25 Flywheel Park West for both of these elections. Don’t forget to vote at our new library.

Additional Voter Registration Information for New York

VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Must register to vote at least 25 days before the election.

Note: You may register at your local board of elections or any state agency participating in the National Voter Registration Act, on any business day throughout the year but, to be eligible to vote in the November general election, your application must be received no later than October 10th except, if you have been honorably discharged from the military or have become a naturalized citizen since October 10th, you may register in person at the board of elections up until October 24th.

QUALIFICATIONS To register to vote in the State of New York, an individual must meet the following qualifications:

• Be a U.S. citizen

• Be at least 18 years old by December 31 of the year in which you file this form (note: you must be 18 years old by the date of the general, primary or other election in which you want to vote)

• Live at present address at least 30 days before an election

• Not be in jail or on parole for a felony conviction

• Not claim the right to vote elsewhere

OBTAINING A VOTER REGISTRATION FORM

Register in person at your county board of elections. or at any New York State Agency-Based voter registration center.

Request a voter registration application by entering your name into the State Board of Elections' mailing list.

Call the State Board of Elections' 1-800-FOR-VOTE hotline to request a voter application.

Download a PDF version of the New York State Voter Registration Form, available online:

English

Spanish

Print the form, complete and sign it. Then mail it to your county board of elections (contact information).

NEW YORK ABSENTEE BALLOTS

Who Can Absentee Vote in New York?

In order to vote by absentee ballot, the voter must meet one of the following qualifications:

• Unavoidably absent from his/her county on Election Day

• Unable to appear at the polls due to illness or disability

• A patient in a Veterans' Administration Hospital

• Detained in jail awaiting Grand Jury action or confined in prison after conviction for an offense other than a felony

How Can I Acquire an Absentee Ballot?

Applications for Absentee Ballots are available at your county board of elections (contact information).

Obtain an application for an absentee ballot online here. Upon completion, applications must be mailed to your county board no later than the seventh day before the election or delivered in person no later than the day before the election.

Voters may also request an absentee ballot by sending a letter to the County Board of Elections. The letter must be received by the County Board no earlier than 30 days and no later than 7 days before the election. The letter must contain the following information:

• The address where the voter is registered

• The address where the ballot is to be sent

• The reason for the request

• The signature of the voterMilitary personnel can acquire Federal Voting Assistance Program Applications from a Voting Assistance Officer, or online here.

How do I Return the Absentee Ballot and What is the Deadline?

In order to be counted, the ballot must either be delivered to the Board of Elections by the close of the polls on Election Day, or be postmarked the day before the election and received by the Board of Elections no later than seven days after the election.

Source of information:

New York State Board of Elections

40 Steuben Street

Albany, NY 12207-2108

Phone: 518-474-6220

Voter Information Hotline: 800-367-8683

info@elections.state.ny.us

http://www.elections.state.ny.us/

How to save on your utility costs

Unify Piermont (unifypiermont@live.com)

Potential savings on your utility costs

All of us are struggling in these difficult financial times and looking at our costs and expenses. One area for possible savings is in our utility costs.

Are your electric and natural gas costs up, flat or down from the same time last year? Any change is dependent on a number of factors including your usage, your mix of electricity and natural gas and your energy supplier.

In February 2009, O & R’s electric rate was 13% lower than the year before, the natural gas rate was 3% higher. Have you remained with O & R? Or switched to an alternate supplier? Current natural gas rates range from $1 to $1.42 per CCF (there are even lower rates which carry a monthly service fee of about $8) and similar variability exists in electric rates. A fixed rate contract for one year is even available at $.89 per CCF.

O & R encourages the use of alternate energy suppliers and offers several options for choosing them on their website www.oru.com. These options include Power Switch (applicable if you are still with O & R) which offers 7% off your bill for two months for switching to an alternate energy supplier. O & R will choose the supplier for you or you can choose your own from the list of suppliers on their website.

A second option is to use the O & R e-bids facility which allows alternate suppliers to bid for your business. You will receive an e-mail telling you that alternate suppliers have submitted bids and you choose the one you want or do nothing.

A third option is to use O & R’s list of alternate suppliers and shop around picking the supplier with the plan that meets your needs. O & R provides a Price to Compare list on their website to use in making the comparisons. There are even “Green” suppliers for electricity using wind, hydro and biomass if you are so inclined. These tend to be more expensive, however.

A different website, www.energyguide.com, can also be very useful. After you input your zip code, it will provide a list of Residential Electricity Offers and a list of Residential Gas Offers that can be reviewed with the rates and terms of each supplier. It also offers a calculator in which you can compare your actual bills, rather than using the average in our area.

Some suppliers offer fixed rates with terms of 3, 6, 12 or 24 months for gas and a year for electricity. It can pay to switch, the Piermont Landing HOA recently changed its natural gas supplier saving $2,000 in January and February.

Any savings are, of course, dependent on what happens to prices in the market which is why you need to carefully consider all of the alternatives before making a change.

This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.

Unify Piermont is a group made up of village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to create a local village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations. And one which communicates with its residents, providing useful information on a timely basis.

We need your help, your input and your involvement. If you share our concerns about Village taxes, Village debt and the lack of any meaningful communication from our Village Board; than e-mail us at unifypiermont@live.com with your name and address or leave a message at 845-613-7675. We will notify you when a new posting goes up on our website at www.unifypiermont.blogspot.com.

Piermont Taxes

Piermont's Debt