Fishkill Justice makes solid case for salary increase for staff

http://hudsonvalleyreporter.com/dutchess/2013/10/town-of-fishkill-court-employees-ask-for-salary-increases/ For more local news, check out the papers website

Posted by: Greg Maker

FISHKILL, N.Y. – Court employees in the town of Fishkill are asking for a salary raise comparable to nearby municipalities; however, with a tight budget and many fiscal challenges facing the town that may prove difficult. The town was recently declared “fiscally stressed” by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli,

Judge Harold Epstein petitioned the Town Board for raises for court personnel including judges and clerks at its meeting Wednesday night. Epstein said that if salaries are raised, it will increase both morale and productivity.

“Our clerks go above and beyond their duties,” Epstein said. “They didn’t have to do grant applications but they took the initiative to do it anyway. A good clerk is invaluable to the court and we’re lucky to have three very good ones.”

Epstein didn’t say how much of an increase court employees are looking for but said that they make significantly less than their colleagues in the bordering towns of Wappinger and East Fishkill. Court clerks in Wappinger make approximately $55,000 annually, while those in East Fishkill make approximately $70,000 per year. In comparison, court clerks in Fishkill make about $37,000. Additionally, judges in Wappinger make just under $27,000 while East Fishkill pays judges about $31,500 per year. Judges in Fishkill currently make $23,500.

“Our salaries are not even close to being comparable,” Epstein said. “We are asking for a fair increase in salary to compensate our clerks for the fantastic job they do. I don’t expect our chief clerk’s salary to go up to what they make in East Fishkill and Wappinger but it has been years since we received a specific pay increase.”

Supervisor Bob LaColla said that one compromise is to increase number of hours that court personnel work .Court offices have been operating from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and LaColla said that town could consider increasing the workday by two hours by keeping the offices open until 5 p.m.

“I see court clerks here early everyday and I agree with the judge,” LaColla said. “I asked for all department heads to consider the benefits to any increases either in salary or for town projects. However, if we entertain every department head request it would be a 63 percent increase in taxes across the board. We need to keep in mind that we still have roughly $5 million in deficit.”

Epstein said that court employees haven’t asked for salary increases or money for court equipment recently because they’ve gotten grants from New York State that provided everything from copy machines to computers and cash registers.

Councilman Tim Tuttle said that since the town ranks close to the Top 10 across the state in revenue, it should be able to afford some type of salary increase.

Councilman Kurt Buck said that the Town Board should at least take a look at the court employees’ request.

“Maybe we can cut other places like holding off on road repair for another year until we get another budget,” Buck said.

Fishkill raising taxes again, 5% town, 10% village, when will it stop?

Letter to Southern Dutchess News

Last week the paper published a story on Fishkill’s recent audit. In that story, the Republican Supervisor who runs a 4-1 GOP town board. Stated that there were “no surprises” in the audit. Is he kidding? The Supervisor, who is covering for his Republican predecessor by refusing to conduct a forensic audit, even read the audit?

 

In the audit, the Supervisor makes a claim that he found the $750,000 missing from the Siscar Sewer project. How could he find something that was right in front of him? The Supervisor was a Councilman when the developer gave Siscar the sewer monies. Did he just forget about it? The Supervisor also seems to think that over $850,000 that was budgeted as revenue from the Siscar district, that “never” existed was found by him, how so?

 

The Fishkill GOP has not only let the former Republican Supervisor off the hook, they are just totally disregarding $850,000 of illegally allocated money that never existed. Why is the Republican Supervisor allowing such criminal activity to go unchallenged? I guess the Fishkill Republican Party could care less what the voters think. In fact, the 4 members of the GOP board decided is was easier to raise Sewer taxes 135% than to hold those that ruined Fishkill's economy accountable. The 2 Republican candidates who were at the 135% tax increase vote, sat quiet and complied, just like they would do if elected. Never mind that one candidate was the GOP Chairman under Pagones and the other one has Pagones running his campaign. So much for that new “voice.”

 

Too bad the voters think otherwise. Earlier this month there was a Conservative Party primary where the Democratic/Independent candidates received 40% and 20% of the vote. That’s right, there is a strong showing by Conservatives in this town who are sick and tired of Fishkill Republicans raising taxes without accountability. As a Conservative Democrat, I am looking forward to taking the Fishkill GOP’s record to the rest of the voters in town. I wonder how many Republicans in town are also sick and tired of the Fishkill GOP raising taxes without accountability.

 

I urge my fellow Conservatives and Republican friends to balance this board before it’s too late. Re-elect Tim Tuttle for Councilman along with Mr. Thomas Knips. The Fishkill GOP does not deserve a 5-0 board, unless of course you like high taxes without accountability.

 

Ozzy Albra

 

Fishkill

 

Fishkill Readies to Bite Fiscal Bullet as Budget Preparation Looms

Greg Maker, Hudson Valley Reporter. For more local news, please check out the papers website.

http://hudsonvalleyreporter.com/dutchess/2013/09/fishkill-readies-bite-fiscal-bullet-budget-preparation-looms/

FISHKILL, N.Y. – A year after increasing taxes in the town by 53 percent, Fishkill’s new administration under Supervisor Bob LaColla is facing an uphill battle to craft the town’s 2014 budget.

With the state tax cap implemented at 1.66 percent next year, LaColla said that the town has only $239,352 more to work with this year than last if they are to remain under that cap. Of that money, LaColla said that $85,000 has already been designated to healthcare under the National Healthcare Act, also known as “Obamacare” which kicks in on Jan. 1, 2014.

LaColla said an additional $25,000 is already designated to contractual obligations. The majority of the contracts are for the police department, which signed a four-year contract that gives department employees a three percent increase each year over that time period. Started in 2012, the contract will go into its third year for this budget.

One upside for the town is that it will see a $64,000 decrease in retirement expenses. LaColla said that over the past three years, 20 municipal positions have been cut. The town no longer has a full-time tax receiver or a director of affordable housing. Other positions were cut from the building department and the courts. Additionally, the Town Board accepted the resignation of Recreation Director Cynthia Starke at its meeting on Wednesday night. LaColla said that the position will be filled but Starke’s successor will be paid less than she was.

“It helps but we have to keep in mind that the town was operating without a capital plan for years,” LaColla said. “There are roads that need to be repaired and parks that need maintenance. When you ignore maintenance and move toward replacing roads rather than repaving them like the previous administration did, the cost goes up. If we don’t resurface the roads they will fall apart. Not doing maintenance increases costs down the road.”

LaColla said that he has had discussions with all of the department heads who have requested everything from money for maintenance and capital expenditures to pay increases and more municipal positions to be filled. LaColla said that the town will not be able to accommodate all of their requests.

“The department heads are not going to be thrilled but we as a board appreciate the work they have done,” LaColla said.

The preliminary budget needs to be submitted to Town Clerk Darlene Bellis no later than Sept. 30.

“We will work to shave down the budget to get under the tax cap,” LaColla said. “We’ll have a month to take a hard look at it.”

DiNapoli: Fishkill Facing Financial Challenges

This is a summary of the NYS Comptroller's report and the audit itself. Note that it only covers January 1 2012-March 31, 2013. The state has NEVER looked into the years that caused this problem and why a forensic audit is still needed.

https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/sept13/091613a.htm

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/towns/2013/fishkill.pdf Actual Report


Unrealistic budgets, insufficient revenues and the lack of rainy day funds have left the Dutchess County town of Fishkill in fiscal stress, according to an audit issued today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“The town of Fishkill is digging out from sizeable operating deficits caused by years of poor budgeting,” said DiNapoli. “The current administration has begun to implement the necessary changes to improve Fishkill’s finances. Continuing these efforts will be vital to eliminating the remaining deficit, building up adequate reserves and avoiding future large fluctuations in tax rates.”

Auditors found the town’s year-end fund balance for its major operating funds had a combined $2.2 million deficit at the end of 2012. The deficit was fueled by overestimated revenues in 2009 and 2010 and underestimated expenses in 2010 and 2011.

As a result, town officials frequently loaned moneys between multiple funds to cover operating expenses. Although these loans are required to be paid back during the same fiscal year, the town had $10.3 million of outstanding interfund loans at the end of 2012, some of which date back to 2009.

DiNapoli noted that improved budgeting practices, coupled with tax levy increases, have allowed officials to make progress in reducing portions of the town’s deficit. For example, the town-wide general fund deficit declined from $1.4 million in 2011 to $132,000 by the close of the 2012 fiscal year.

Still, challenges remain. Specifically, the fund balance of the town sewer fund declined from a surplus of $765,000 in 2009 to a $1.3 million deficit in 2012. This occurred primarily because sewer revenues were not sufficient to cover operating costs. Further, at the end of 2012 the town-outside-village general fund had a $2.4 million deficit fund balance and the town highway fund had a $434,280 deficit.
Auditors also found:

• Town officials failed to charge residents for services in two smaller sewer districts, resulting in lost revenue of approximately $188,000 annually;
• In 2009 and 2010, the town over budgeted for mortgage tax revenue by a combined $1.4 million and parks revenue by a combined $110,000;
• In 2010 and 2011, the town underestimated legal expenses by more than $500,000; and
• The town did not use nearly $782,000 in donated funds as stipulated by the donors, but instead applied the money towards general and sewer operations. This included $758,000 intended for a sewer system extension which was never built.

DiNapoli recommended the town adopt more realistic budgets and monitor operations throughout the year more closely to ensure further deficits do not occur.
The audit also recommended the town board:

• Reduce the deficits in all the major funds and develop a realistic plan to accumulate fund balance so that the town is prepared for unexpected expenses or revenue shortfalls;
• Review all interfund advances and determine the actual amount owed to each fund; and
• Ensure that all interfund borrowings are repaid in a timely manner.

Town officials agreed with the audit findings and indicate they have already begun developing a multi-year financial plan to address many of the issues raised in the report. The town’s complete response is included in the audit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/audits/towns/2013/fishkill.pdf

For access to state and local government spending and nearly 50,000 state contracts, visithttp://www.openbooknewyork.com/. The easy-to-use website was created by Comptroller DiNapoli to promote openness in government and provide taxpayers with better access to the financial workings of government.

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NYC Phone: (212) 681-4840 Fax: (212) 681-7677
Internet: www.osc.state.ny.us
E-Mail: press@osc.state.ny.us
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Wappinger School Tax Bill now includes a Fishkill Tax

If you live in the Wappinger School District in the Town/Village of Fishkill. You will notice a new tax voted on by the Republican members of the Town Board. The board decided to raise your school taxes because they collect the taxes for the district.

While this will be short lived, the tax will be a lifetime gift courtesy of the Fishkill GOP.

Wappinger SD will be taking that portion back and it will now be built into the school tax. Then it will be pulled from the town, which will now need to find that revenue somewhere else.

Tuttle, Knips merit Conservative votes

Fishkill Conservatives will have a primary election from noon to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10. This primary is for two council seats. In the running are two Republicans, a real lifelong Conservative and a center-right Democrat.

Councilman Tim Tuttle, who in 2013 became the first Democrat to win a seat on Fishkill’s town board in more than 40 years, is seeking a full term. In his first year in office, Tuttle has affirmed his fiscal conservatism while proving he is the most competent councilman.

Running with Tuttle is Conservative Thomas Knips. Tom has been on the Planning Board for more than 10 years and is needed to attack the infrastructure problems the town is facing.

The two Republicans running claim to be a new voice for Fishkill. Don’t believe one word they say. On Aug. 7, the 4-1 Republican-controlled board voted to raise sewer rates a whopping 135 percent. Every Republican voted for the increase, while Tuttle did not. During this meeting, Knips also spoke out regarding the increase.

Where were the two new-voice Republicans during the meeting? Well, they attended the public hearing, sat in the back and said absolutely nothing. Not once did they fight for the citizens of Fishkill. These new-voice candidates sat quiet as their fellow Republicans voted to raise your sewer rates 135 percent.

The only ones who delivered on conservative principles were Councilman Tuttle and Mr. Knips. On primary day, vote for those who proved they are bona fide conservatives — vote Tuttle and Knips.

Ozzy Albra

Fishkill