Nelson: Falling sales tax revenues, rising employee benefits

By Margo Frink

With sales tax revenues declining and employee benefits on the rise the Nelson Town Board will have to look for create ways to reduce its spending to avoid a tax increase. The board reviewed its 2010 tentative budget during the regular board meeting Oct. 8 and decided to meet Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. to discuss changes.

“This is one of the worst budget years I’ve ever had to go through,” said Nelson Supervisor Dick Williams.

According to Williams, sales tax revenues are down about $21,000 from last year. And last year $22,000 of the budget funded employee benefits. Williams said the state Comptroller’s Office released information last month that employee pension benefits have increased. This year’s employee benefits are around $35,000 on a $300,000 payroll. Only $30,000 was placed in the budget for this increase.

Councilman Robert Davies questioned the highway department’s budget. Last year, around $200,000 was budgeted for highway but spending was kept at $173,000. This year’s budgeted amount for highway is $193,000. Davies wanted to know why.

“We went through this last year, not wanting to raise taxes in hard economic times,” Davies said. “None of us wanted to do that.”

Williams said he removed equipment reserve capital from the budget. We could always take the highway to $183,000 and put $10,000 in reserve.

Highway Superintendent John Sevier Jr. said fuel prices are down from last year although salt and sand prices have increased.

If no changes are made to the budget, the amount to be raised by taxes is around $400,000 and the tax rate would be $2.58 per $1,000 of assessed value, up just six cents from last year’s $2.52. The town’s assessed value did increase by $2 million.

The board plans to hold a public hearing on the budget Nov. 12 and adopt it.

Backhoe for sale

The town is looking to sell its 1994 backhoe at an online auction. The board agreed to allow Sevier to sell it at the most competitive price. It is operational and has around 5,000 hours on it.

In other news

The town is waiting on funds to be released on an Agriculture and Farmland Protection Agency grant it will share with the village of Cazenovia. The amount is $25,000.

Sevier reported that nearly nine miles of new surface has been placed on town roads this year. He also said that “shoulder” work has been delayed due to the inability to share equipment and/or people with neighboring towns.

“I’m having trouble getting people here,” Sevier said. “The town of Lincoln is tied up. The county is the last resort. They are busy. It’s hard to get a crew. The worst case scenario is we have to rent [equipment].”

Sevier said it costs about $2,500 a week to rent the machine, although the highway department only has about three days of work left to complete in Erieville.

There wasn’t much to report in the line of the Erieville Water District project moving forward. Williams said they are still waiting on the engineer’s revised report to hold a public hearing and move forward with bonding.

Two residents have shown interest as dog control officers as a shared position; one salary two people. They want the position as a team. This position will not be appointed until January. Betsy Card is the current dog control officer.

Cazenovia Area Community Development Association representative Barbara Henderson asked the board to consider a fee for services. She said CACDA spent a lot of time securing the shared agriculture grant and would like the town to help with some of its costs. She said CADCA was also seeking someone from Nelson to sit on its board.

The Nelson board will meet again Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.

Nelson: Falling sales tax revenues, rising employee benefits

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