Tarrytown Adopts Budget, Overrides Tax Cap | Tarrytown-SleepyHollow Daily Voice
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Tarrytown Adopts Budget, Overrides Tax Cap
TARRYTOWN, N.Y.  Tarrytown trustees voted to override the tax cap on Wednesday night while adopting a $14 million budget that stays within the tax cap limit.
The adopted 2012-13 budget would increase the tax rate by 4.74 percent.
The language is authorizing a property tax levy in excess of what's established in general municipal law section 3-C, however the budget that we will be considering does not exceed the 2 percent property tax cap, Mayor Drew Fixell said during Wednesday's meeting, adding that the board was voting to override the cap just in case there was an error or a change in interpretation that lead to the budget being over the cap.
The tax cap limits the taxes a municipality can levy on residents to approximately 2 percent. A 60 percent majority vote of the board of trustees is needed to override the cap for one year.
Trustee Thomas Butler voted against the tax cap override and the adopted budget.
I'm not comfortable with the percentage that was presented tonight, Butler said during the meeting.
The adopted budget includes the layoff of a police dispatcher and a part-time recreation staff member, Village Administrator Michael Blau said. Another recreation staff position has been reduced to part-time, Blau said.
Residents and labor officials had protested the layoffs during an earlier budget hearing .
CSEA is very concerned by the proposal to eliminate the police dispatcher position and reduce the senior recreation position to part-time, Pat Russell, CSEA labor relations specialist said. We urge you to restore these positions to your budget.
Trustees also added additional hours to the village court clerk's schedule, which had been reduced by 12 and a half hours. Deputy Mayor Thomas Basher said that village Justice Kyle McGovern had asked for three and a half hours back so that the court could work on a backlog of parking tickets.
The adopted budget will be available on the village website next week.