New Paltz doesn’t have an entirely new town board, but a majority of members — including the supervisor — did not participate in creating a budget last year, meaning that there are fresh eyes on the process. Supervisor Amanda Gotto indicated at the October 3 town council meeting that the tentative budget presented that evening was the result of many 12-hour days of meeting with the town’s comptroller and department heads to come up with this first-round proposal, which would have resulted in a 6.69% increase to general-fund taxes. After considerable discussion, council members opted to add in several expenditures, most significantly $100,000 more for the New Paltz Rescue Squad, as they finalized the preliminary budget which will be subject to scrutiny at a public hearing on October 17.
Gotto prefaced the budget discussion by detailing some of the process that went into these figures. The new supervisor began by gathering requests from the different department heads, and then working with the town’s comptroller, Jean Gallucci, on deciding how much of those requests could be granted. There was also work done by a task force, comprised of two members of the council and two other town residents. Gotto noted that a local government is designed not to create products or profit, as a business might be, but to provide services to all residents. To do this, the supervisor believes, it is necessary to keep up with increasing costs, as well as plan for future expenses such as addressing the lack of a permanent town hall.
Complicating the municipal budget process is the fact that many expenses are no longer able to be controlled. Union contracts tend to last several years, and any increases to salaries and benefits are obligations which must be paid for over the length of those contracts. There are also contributions to the state pension fund, which are determined in part by how well the returned earned through investments of those collected monies by the state’s comptroller. Similarly, there is money due for the Medicare premiums of town retirees.
This meeting was the first public consideration of that tentative budget, from which council members derive the preliminary budget that will be the subject of that public hearing on October 17. The tentative budget, if passed unchanged, would have resulted in a 6.69% tax increase for the A fund, which impacts all town residents and is the largest in the overall budget. This was based on what Gotto believes to be conservatively small assumptions about revenue (which, in addition to taxes, includes fees, grants and government aid outside of grants) and projecting costs on the high end. While the property tax levy is a known quantity, the town government also is sent money from variable sources, such as the recording of mortgages.
According to Gotto, “These were not the numbers we started with, oh, no.” Before paring many lines — including a haircut of $111,000 from the police request for 2025 — the increase was 9.2%. There will be no pay increases for elected officials, or appointed employees with less than a year of service; other appointed staff members will get a three percent raise under this spending scheme.
Compromises were made around staffing in several ways. Town justices have warned that revenue from the court is impacted by the fact that the number of clerks dropped from four in 2019 to two now; they will get another half-time employee. Community wellness staff members suggested rejiggering that department by shifting some of the work to consultants; this will save around $40,000 and make it possible to include more bilingual services through one consultant in particular.
The supervisor highlighted the need for planning for a new town hall; the annual rent for the trailers now being used is more than $100,000, and the cost to maintain them continues to rise as those temporary buildings age. “It’s time to get out,” Gotto said.
Providing for the New Paltz Rescue Squad continues to be a significant concern. Much of that nonprofit’s $3 million budget comes from insurance claims, but being available to serve all residents — including those who refuse to the transported to a hospital, and thus do not generate revenue — does not come cheap. The rescue squad’s readiness means that it takes about six minutes to respond to a call anywhere in town, and for the past two years it’s been made clear that this cannot be sustained at the current level of funding. More money was provided in the current budget, up to $239,000; the request for 2025 was $639,000, and the tentative budget pegged it at $539,000.
The rescue squad budget is to ensure the constant availability of two ambulances, with crew qualified to provide advanced life support up to and including the types of services available in a hospital emergency room to a patient suffering from cardiac arrest and other life-threatening conditions. To get half that amount of readiness — one ambulance with crew — Lloyd officials pay to the New Paltz Rescue Squad $600,000 annually. As the contract negotiations with rescue squad officials will occur in November, town council members agreed to add back in another $100,000 to that budget line as part of their changes, prior to adopting the preliminary budget.
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