Putnam Valley Begins 2013 Budget Reviews
While many local residents were no doubt spending Aug. 25 enjoying a hot and sunny late summer Saturday, the Putnam Valley Town Board was beginning its part in creating the 2013 budgets for the town’s special districts.
Putnam Valley Town Board members Jacqueline Annabi and Steven Mackay, as well as town Finance Director Marianne DeSantis, took comments from representatives from various town districts during their preliminary budget meeting for the districts.
The annual final budget meeting for the districts has been scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 8 at town hall.
DeSantis said Town Supervisor Robert Tendy is slated to release the town general fund budget no later than Sunday, Sept. 30 and the board will vote on the 2013 spending plan, including the districts, by a deadline of Tuesday, Nov. 20.
Annabi said the town board has one major goal for the 2013 budget.
“We will try to stay below the 2 percent cap,” she said.
Municipalities throughout the state will be facing the second year of the state mandate to keep the local property tax levy at 2 percent or below. The 2012 town general fund budget includes a 1.9 percent tax levy increase, according to the state-imposed tax levy cap.
Annabi said the board is seeking to keep the town’s general budget, as well as those for the special districts at, “a zero percent increase” for next year.
Jan Iuzzolino, the president of the Roaring Brook Lake Homeowner Association, told the town board, her organization is attempting to “keep the fund balance in tact” in order to pay for future long term capital projects.
Iuzzolino’s group shares the town board’s goal of trying to keep funding for the district at 2012 levels.
“We want to keep the budget relatively flat,” she said.
