This morning (2017-03-18) was a special meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees, with the intent of reviewing the proposed 2017-2018 Budget.
From previous budget workshops they had a tentative budget of ~2 million for expenses, and ~1.9 million for revenue, with a gap of ~30 thousand. I know those numbers don’t add up, I just noted the approximates, not actual values. Today’s goal was to produce a ‘finished’ budget, and stay however long that took. In the end, we got out around noon.
There was discussion about property tax revenue from new developments, in particular Dunkin Donuts and Pinebrook. Turns out, that’s not going to be happening this budget year. If I heard the reason right, property assessments are about what was there on a particular date, and neither of those projects had enough done to increase value as of that date. Makes sense, there has to be a time-frame for reassessment or it would become impossible. That it gives a developer a year or so before the tax hike kicks in could be viewed as incentive to develop.
It was reported one of the villages tractors got in an accident last week. During the snow cleanup, it was plowing out one of the sidewalks when a car decided it wanted to drive there. No one was hurt, which is always good, and the car came away the worse from the encounter. Just goes to show, the sidewalk is for walking, not driving. Although skiing is occasionally appropriate
While the fire department was discussed, the ambulance seemed to have more that needed to be worked out. I can only speculate as to why this is. Perhaps fire is simpler (in a relative sense)? Perhaps the board members have more personal experience with it? Either way, ambulance seems to get more air time with more issues then fire.
The big drivers for this years budget, versus last years, are both medical related. First was health insurance rates have increased. I never heard a number mentioned, just words like ‘considerable’ and ‘significant’ used to describe it. Second was an adjustment to the ambulance contract with the Town of Mendon. The details of that are a long story I don’t completely understand. But the results of that contract change brought challenges to balancing this years budget.
While torturing the numbers, it was asked what a hypothetical tax increase of 10% would gain the village. The answers was approximately $33,000. While they ended up going with a lower number, the ‘what if’ scenarios make for interesting discussions.
Unofficially, the tax levy increase for the Village of Honeoye Falls will be 5.42%. I have to say unofficial, because the formal approval and public hearing is still to come. The conclusion they reached today was one those present felt was the best way to handle next years finances for the village. The public at large still has their opportunity to offer feedback. So if you’re a village resident: get a copy of the draft, read up on it, and show up at the Monday April 3rd public hearing and formal approval.
And don’t forget to vote next Tuesday (Noon til Nine).
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 18th, 2017 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees.
Link to agenda on Village website.
Link to agenda stored on this site, should the village lose their copy.