Gromack Releases Preliminary Budget for Clarkstown

Here are some of the highlights of the town’s spending plan for 2015:

Total: $142.8 million

Rising expenses: utilities, pensions and health care.

Declining revenue sources: Mortgage tax revenue continues its decline. Predicting $2.4 million for 2014, town officials point out that revenue source has plummeted since 2003, when the town received $7 million.

The town board has a work session at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in Room 301 at Town Hall. A public hearing on the budget proposal will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 5.

Here’s the whole press release from the Town Supervisor’s Office

Clarkstown Town Supervisor Alexander J. Gromack and the Town Board presented the preliminary 2015 town budget with a 1.1% tax increase, under the State cap of 1.56%. The Town’s total budget is $142,852,766.

The Town is facing a number of continuing increasing costs and decreasing revenues. For example, pension costs for both CSEA employees and police totaled $11.5 million in 2014, and increased an extra $500,000 in 2015. Similarly, this year the Town will see an increase in health care costs of over $600,000 from $13.9 million in 2014 to $14.5 million in 2015. The Town will pay over $208,000 in MTA tax to the State of New York, while schools, libraries, and small businesses are exempt from the tax. Meanwhile, revenue sources continue to decline. For example, at its highest in 2003, the Town received $7 million in mortgage tax revenue but is only projecting $2.4 million in 2015. Utility costs are also rising including water and lights up $160,950 from 2014.

“While unfunded mandates and other external costs increase for the Town, we continue looking for cost savings by reducing the size of our workforce and government in general,” said Gromack. “This Town Board and I are committed to reaching further and looking deeper to find ways to save our residents money and still provide the quality of life they expect and deserve living in the Town of Clarkstown.”

The Town reduced its full time workforce by 81 employees since the Supervisor took office in 2005. That is a 15% reduction in the Town’s workforce.

In 2013, the Town consolidated the three Town garages, a move that will have short and long range savings of up to $1 million. In 2014, the Town executed the consolidation of the Receiver of Taxes and Town Clerk’s Office saving $400,000 a year.

“Despite increasing costs, we continue to make fiscally responsible decisions trying to reduce the cost of governing without reducing services,” said Supervisor Gromack. “While we look to downsize and consolidate government, we are not short changing residents. All the essential services are still being provided from recreation to leaf pick up to snow removal.”

The Town’s fiscal management has again earned it a “AAA” rating from Standard and Poor’s. The Town of Clarkstown is consistently named in CNN/Money Magazine’s Top 100 Places to Live in America, ranking number 7 in September 2014, and one of the Top 10 Safest Communities in the nation by CQ Press. In addition, the Town was rated as the #1 Booming Suburb in New York by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in 2013.