Cicero, NY - Cicero Town Supervisor Judy Boyke recently proposed a tentative 2011 budget of $10,783,188. That is up about $510,000, or 4.96 percent. The tentative budget includes three parts, a $3,040,997 town-wide general fund, a $2,666,930 part-town fund and a $5,075,261 part-town highway fund. These figures do not include special districts, such as trash, drainage, water, sewer and...
View full sizeCicero Town Supervisor Judy Boyke has presented her first budget since taking office in January. The tentative budget includes higher taxes. Cicero, NY - Cicero Town Supervisor Judy Boyke recently proposed a tentative 2011 budget of $10,783,188. That is up about $510,000, or 4.96 percent.
The tentative budget includes three parts, a $3,040,997 town-wide general fund, a $2,666,930 part-town fund and a $5,075,261 part-town highway fund. These figures do not include special districts, such as trash, drainage, water, sewer and fire protection, Town Comptroller Shirlie Stuart said.
The general fund, which affects all town property owners, has a tax rate of $12.95 per $1,000 of assessed property value, Stuart said. The part-town fund has a tax rate of $18.14 per $1,000 and the highway fund has a tax rate of $42.89 per $1,000, she said.
That means the owner of a $100,000 home outside the village of North Syracuse currently assessed at $4,900 would see their town property taxes increase from $300.83 to $362.52. That’s a $61.69 increase, or 20.5 percent more than this year, Stuart said.
The owner of a $100,000 home inside the village of North Syracuse currently assessed at $4,900 would see their town property taxes increase from $33.18 to $63.43. That’s a difference of $30.28, or a 91.2 percent increase.
“Revenues were inflated last year and the past administrators took a lot of money from the fund balance so now we have less money to balance the budget,” Stuart said. “And taxes did not increase for the last four years so now we’re looking at less money in the savings account and less revenues coming in. There was no long-range planning. So what do you do now? You have to raise taxes.”
Cicero’s current budget used $444,000 from the fund balance, Stuart said. The tentative 2011 budget, which was presented to the board Sept. 22, recommends using $386,000 from the fund balance, she said.
View full sizeTwo budget workshops, which are open to the public, are set to begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 20 at Cicero Town Hall, 8236 S. Main St., Cicero.The adopted 2010 budget anticipated $3.7 million in revenues, but Stuart said the town will fall short of that revenue goal. For example, the town appropriated $800,000 for mortgage tax revenue, but the town expects to fall $200,000 short, she said.
Expenses — including salaries, health insurance and retirement costs — also are on the rise.
The town has budgeted $878,000 for its roughly 75 full-time employees’ health insurance costs — including $256,460.52 for 15 employees in a Teamsters union — next year. About 25 part-time town employees do not receive health benefits.
A four-year Teamsters union contract, approved Dec. 14 -- under former Town Supervisor Chet Dudzinski's administration -- requires the town to give town hall employees in the union a 3.5 percent increase in 2010, a 4 percent increase next year, a 4.5 percent increase in 2012 and a 4 percent increase in 2013, Stuart said. According to the contract, the town must pay 100 percent of the Teamsters members’ medical, dental and other employee benefits.
The town also is under contract with two other unions, whose members contribute up to 12 percent of their health benefits, Stuart said.
Boyke defeated Dudzinski, a three-term incumbent supervisor, last November and took office in January. This is her first budget.
The town board has scheduled budget workshops for 4 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 20 at Cicero Town Hall, 8236 Brewerton Road (also known as South Main Street and U.S. Route 11), Cicero.