This morning (2021-03-13) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees for a workshop on next years budget.
While the discussion covered a variety of topics, by the end of the meeting the Board had mostly settled on a budget. The only real outstanding question is how much reserves to use vs how much to raise the tax rate. Which will be the focus of next weeks meeting.
That being said, below are some tidbits I noticed.
It was pointed out no raise and increasing health insurance contribution is effectively a pay cut. It sounds like they are aiming for a small raise instead.
State aid is expected to be -20%, compared to last year.
There are potential federal grants for infrastructure. They were hesitant to count in this years budget, as there isn’t enough information yet.
If taxes aren’t raised this year, they expect to have to raise them even more next year. Sounds like the tax cap is ~2.8% this year.
Something had pushed the levy down, but what wasn’t stated. Reassessment? Court case? I don’t know. Only thing that comes to mind is Pinehurst, but that is speculation my part.
Cutting staff and therefor doing less work was mentioned. The idea didn’t get much traction.
While the total of court fines is known, the breakdown wasn’t. ie, how much is traffic vs other things.
It sounds like the current shortfall is ~$2500.
Which brings us back to the idea of focusing on reserves vs tax rate. How to balance that should be next weeks focus. Although, until the budget is approved, everything can still change. For that matter, it can be changed after approval, but that is a bit harder.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 13, 2021 meeting of the Honeoye Falls Board of Trustees. Next meeting on this topic is scheduled for March 20 at 8AM.