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'Tough decisions' ahead for South Russell
(by Sue Reid - November 05, 2008)
'Tough decisions' ahead for South Russell
By SUE REID
It will be a conservative 2009 in terms of spending for the Village of South Russell.
Councilman John Binder, who chairs the finance committee, said last week that a "rough stab" at the 2009 budget by the committee showed a decline in revenue of over $100,000. "This is what we are looking at for next year, and we all have to make tough decisions," he said.
Mr. Binder attributed the decline to a significant drop in interest rates, as well as a cautious approach to income tax for 2009 based on aggregate incomes of the residents.
"We are being conservative on being able to replicate our income-tax revenues from this year," Mr. Binder said. An audit by the Central Collection Agency, the village's taxing agency, identified people who historically have not been paying for collections, he said. "We don't anticipate replicating those past-due revenues next year," he said.
In addition, the village opted not to go to the ballot Nov. 4 with an increase in the police levy due to the state of the economy, Mr. Binder said. "We felt it was too difficult of a time for people. We'll just have to manage through it," he said.
In reviewing next year's budget, it was easier for the committee to get a handle on revenue numbers initially, because there is not a whole lot that can be done to change them, Mr. Binder said.
"We have to look at the mechanics and dynamics that would affect them. We're really being conservative in every area, also including property taxes."
Mr. Binder said it's uncommon to see negative revenue growth, but that may be the case next year. "We wanted to put that out there," he said. The committee wanted the department heads to be aware of it and keep that in mind when evaluating their expenditures in 2009, he said.
The next step is to take the "first pass" at the expense budget, he said. "I thoroughly anticipate our first pass at the expenditure budget to be in excess of our revenue budget. On the second pass is where we will begin to take the red pencil to it and start making some tough decisions."
The department heads and their committees have been given their work sheets, which include the historical information for all of the cost centers, Mr. Binder said. They will be resubmitting that with their expenditure projections for next year to the finance committee, he said.
At that point, the committee will include expenses they know of, which include insurance, health care, workers' compensation and salary increases.
"Once we load all that in, we'll build the budget back up and then evaluate the bottom line and see what remedial action we need to take," Mr. Binder said.
The annual budget of the village is about $3 million.
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