Mayor Shields has released his 2009-10 budget proposal with cuts all around designed to appease the no-new taxes crowd. Even at that, property taxes will increase almost seven percent. Cuts include
- No fireworks for the 4th and New Years’
- Pay cuts for the town attorney, clerk and building inspector
- The end of the sidewalk replacement program
- Termination of a youth program grant to the YMCA.
Mayor Shields, who has announced that he is not running for re-election, appears to be have adopted a strategy of making trustees and village residents advocate for their favorite programs — and then justify the associated tax hikes. “Personally, I think we can raise taxes,” Shields told the Journal News. “But if people are going to fight me on this, this is what they’ve got to know.”
The proposed budget increases taxes by 6.9 percent and grows the budget by rise 2.79 percent to $5.06 million. Shields says that the cuts prevent an additional four percent increase in spending.
Source: Journal News
