It is with concern, frustration and tireless effort that the
Town of Wellsville Town Board presents the 2020 budget for your review. We have spent countless hours pouring over
the budgetary numbers while debating the most necessary budget cuts and most
crucial appropriations. The process has
revealed several issues that have led to a negative overall tax
implication. Some of the most impactful problems
are as follows:
1. Selective filing of Real Property Sales that fell outside
of the typical norms for Assessed value vs. sale price realized, coupled with the lack of proper filing of
sales for several months that fell within the “normal” range, along with a
couple large commercial property sales that realized numbers that exceeded
assessed values, all helped lead to a
mathematical anomaly that didn’t accurately depict the overall true property
values for the Town of Wellsville. The
State of New York used the obviously skewed numbers to determine that our
Townwide Equalization Rate had dropped from 99% to 89% for the year 2020.
As you may remember from about 8 years ago when this also
happened, the Town of Wellsville portion of the County Tax Levy will increase
dramatically with this sudden 10% swing in Equalization Rate.
Our newly Appointed Tax Assessor (Mr. Timothy Dannheim) is
working diligently to catch up on months of unfiled paperwork, years of
improperly filed exemptions, etc. so that he can attempt to petition the State
of New York to reconsider their determination of our Equalization Rate for the
year 2021. Unfortunately, this will not
help the cause for the 2020 budget.
2. The total taxable value for the Town of Wellsville
dropped 3 million dollars from last year. (2.4 million of the drop-in value
coming from a negotiated tax valuation concession made by our Grievance Board
on the former K-mart building) Those kind of dramatic valuation drops have a
tremendously negative impact on the tax levy as all other taxpayers must make
up for that massive shortfall in taxable values.
3. Account Fund Balances (monies not spent from previously
levied taxes) that have been used for the last 10+ years to balance our Town
Budgets and reduce the Tax Levy Increases (in an effort to always stay under
the mandated 2% tax increase) have been depleted so badly that the Fund
Balances can no longer offer any tax relief.
This means that it is necessary to levy more “new tax” monies to balance
our budget because we no longer have Account Fund Balance “Reserves” to draw
from.
4. Cost of Employee Benefits, rising costs for parts and
equipment repairs, increases in Insurance Premiums for Town Assets, continuous
needs for maintenance and repairs of buildings, bridges, highways, etc. all lead to dramatic increases in overall
costs.
With these challenges, it has been necessary for this Town
Board to make some aggressive budgetary and personnel cuts. Here are a few of our more notable
adjustments for this budget:
1. Formed a
Shared Assessor Agreement with 5 other Townships to dramatically reduce our
overall costs for Assessment.
2. Eliminated
the Payroll Clerk/Airport Office Manager position (part-time) -these duties will be rolled into the responsibilities of
the Town Clerk and Deputy Town Clerk positions
3. Eliminating one
Union Highway position.
4. Changed
non-union benefits to include an employee contribution to Health Care costs
5. Held non-union
employee wage increase to 1%
6. Continue to
negotiate a fair Union Contract that taxpayers can afford.
7. Gave NO wage
increase to Town Board Members (including the Supervisor)
The Wellsville Town Supervisor, Department Heads, and Town
Board will continue to hold the line on spending as we move forward with the
many challenges facing this Town over the next several years. We will continue to look for ways to work
with other Municipalities, Not-for-Profit Agencies, Economic Development Agencies,
and all other Businesses and Institutions that are in our sphere of
influence. This concerted effort to
control expenditures will likely lead to minor inconveniences, slight
reductions in services, and many uncomfortable conversations. We ask for your continued community input and
support and are always open to well-intentioned debate.
You will notice that this budget does fall within the 2% tax
cap limit as required by the State of New York.
Because of this, taxpayers will still receive whatever minor tax relief
benefit checks the State may issue.
