Dobbs Ferry, New York. In a democracy, a budget cut, no matter how small, will be met with prolonged rage, while a tax break is greeted with ephemeral indifference. These lopsided emotions track observed human behavior when faced with financial losses and gains. Humans react to a 10% loss twice a severely as they appreciate a 10% gain.
On Tuesday, April 22, 40 Dobbs Ferry volunteer firemen, dressed in full uniform, descended on Village Hall to protest a $10,000 decrease in their 2008-2009 budget. Fire Chief Joseph Marron characterized the budget cut as ‘an insult to the membership’. Ironically, at the prior meeting when the Village Board voted to grant the volunteer firemen and ambulance corp a 10% partial exemption from Village real estate taxes, not a single fireman ventured down to laud the Mayor and Trustees for this recognition of their service. (The tax exemption could be worth about $25,000 each year if every eligible person applies and they all own homes of average value.)
Even more disturbing was the coverage of the event by David Maggiotto of The Rivertowns Enterprise. Mr. Maggiotto seems to have forgotten that his job is to report the facts, not to dress up the sound bites and spin as reality. Mr. Maggiotto seems to be more impressed with the theatrics of a Village Board meeting than the substance of the debate.
What Mr. Maggiotto should have pointed out is the real issue haunting this budget cycle. The new party in town, i.e., the Democrats, is considering an increase in the budget of the Library by $100,000 to add two full-time librarians, while asking all the other departments to cut their budgets by 1% to pay for the Library’s good fortune. This imposition of legislative control over the budget is riling up the Village administrators, who are not accustom to such legislative intervention.
In addition, the follies of the past have finally caught up with the Village. The new Department of Public Works facility has blown a hole in the Village budget that is forcing the Board to raid the Village’s reserves, the so-called Fund Balance, to artificially and temporarily depress the tax increase. They are also asking the other parts of Village government to find ways to scrimp and save. All of this is occurring while systematic inflation in terms of pensions, healthcare and energy/water costs are galloping ahead.
The great thing about democracy is that every once in a while the party in power changes and the budget gets a thorough review. If the Democrats want to shift $100,000 to the Library from other departments, that is their prerogative.
But Mayor Seskin, Deputy Mayor Koenigsberg and the rest of the Village Board need to look beyond the tired refrain that 85% of the budget increase is immutable and find ways to cut spending increases. The Village budget represented approximately 2.2% of total Gross Adjusted Income in 2005, the last year for which data is available for free online. Some might say that that percentage is not large and move on. But, in 2000, the Village budget only represented 1.7% of Gross Adjusted Income in the Village. That’s a pretty big increase of 500 basis points or ½% in five years – about 0.1% per year.
Income of all types in Dobbs Ferry when up 4.1% between 2005 and 2004 (the latest available data) based on Average Gross Adjusted Income by Zip Code times the number of returns filed in Dobbs Ferry as reported by www.melissadata.com. So any tax rate increase above 4.1% per annum means that the good citizens of Dobbs Ferry have less money in their pockets to spend for the necessities/ frivolities of life.
The Board is asking the Village adminstration to find ways to keep the tax rate increase below 4% by cutting 1% from the proposed 4.92% tax rate increase, while increasing the Library staff by two so that the Library facility can be fully utilized. A 1% additional decrease in spending across the board – except the Library – is not a radical request.
Ironically, the only way to really cut Village spending, however, is to reduce Village employment – both full-time and part-time employees and summer positions. Right now, there are open positions in the Police Department and the DPW. James McCue has suggested that these positions should not be filled. Holding these two positions open would free up $200,000 per year (including overtime, holiday pay, benefits, and overhead) or 1.3% of the total Village budget. This money could be applied to restore the $10,000 missing from the Fire Department’s budget request and reduce or eliminate the 1% budget cuts for all the other departments.
But as we have seen at the last three Village Board meetings, cutting anything – whether it be a budget item or the use of leaf blowers during the summer — will bring out a crowd of angry people. Expect the Police Department and DPW to react boisterously to the suggestion that they can function with one fewer full-time position.
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