A $100,000 bump to the rescue squad is expected to bring another 9.4% increase to New Paltz property taxes

Heeding a dire warning from the chief of the New Paltz Rescue Squad, town council members are prepared to significantly increase the amount of money spent to support that lifesaving option, which is considered one of the best such services around. The tentative 2024 budget presented at the November 2 council meeting included a $100,000 bump to the rescue squad, as part of a spending plan that is expected to bring another 9.4% increase to property taxes. Before the end of the night, council members agreed to add another $100,000 to the rescue squad. Those additional funds won’t result in a further increase, because they’re to be offset by $136,180 in cuts identified since the tentative budget was published. 

Chief Matthew Goodnow warned in July that more funding would be needed to sustain the service, which is supported by a combination of tax dollars and insurance billing. The latter form of payment has never been enough on its own, and has become much shakier since the opening of Woodland Pond. At the October 17, 2019 meeting, Goodnow told council members that calls to Woodland Pond were at that time 28% of all rescue squad calls, despite developers promising that it would be about four a month when that compound was first being considered some years earlier. Since many of those patients decline to be transported to a hospital, there’s no way to bill an insurance company, and the $10,000 paid in lieu of property taxes doesn’t even cover those rescue squad services, much less anything else provided to members of the public through local government. 

The large increase in the rescue squad budget line is intended to prevent the signing of a contract with another municipality — which Goodnow said would be much more lucrative — and thus reducing the incredibly high response rate enjoyed by New Paltz residents facing a medical emergency. 

Supervisor Neil Bettez said that another $406,000 in increases requested by department heads was left on the cutting-room floor before the tentative budget was made public. That means that the next recreation director won’t be full time, as had been proposed, which could make finding a replacement for Chuck Bordino a little trickier. Council members labored over that question, since a full-timer could conceivably bring in more revenue and offset that cost, but ultimately they decided to keep the position as it is, for 2024 at least. 

In other town departments, staff members will have to do without additional help for another year. The money will instead mostly go toward fixed costs such as salary increases negotiated under multi-year contracts, health care and pension costs, and an anticipated rise in the cost of utilities to the tune of $185,000. 

Council members will continue their budget deliberations at their November 16 meeting.