The Ulster Town Board last week adopted a $15.39 million spending plan for 2025, a $1.22 million, or 8.61 percent increase, over this year’s budget. The adopted budget comes with a $10.71 million tax levy, an increase of $1.55 million, and one which required overriding the state-mandated tax levy increase of 2 percent.
The discussion saw ongoing tensions between supervisor James E. Quigley, III and deputy supervisor Clayton Van Kleeck resurface, including what comprises a supermajority of a five-member town board, a threshold required to override the tax cap.
“There seems to be a disagreement between myself and Councilman Van Kleeck over the interpretation of the concept of a supermajority,” Quigley said during the town board meeting held on Tuesday, November 19, citing the New York State Comptroller’s definition. On the official comptroller’s website, a February 10, 1993 opinion of Town of Poughkeepsie attorney Thomas D. Mahar, Jr., defines a supermajority in the case of municipal bond resolutions.
“With respect to referendum and super-majority vote requirements, Local Finance Law, §33.00(a) provides that every bond resolution shall be adopted by at least a two-thirds vote of the voting strength of the finance board except that a three-fifths vote is sufficient if the bond resolution is subject to mandatory referendum or if the bond resolution provides that it shall be submitted to referendum in the manner authorized by or pursuant to the Local Finance Law.”
In the Town of Ulster, Van Kleeck and council members Rocco Secreto and Maryann DeGroodt voted in favor of overriding the tax cap, and Quigley and councilwoman Anna Hayner voted against.
“That is in effect a simple majority based upon the town board because we can’t pass anything with less than three,” Quigley said. “Under my interpretation of the law, two no votes denies the passage of this law.”
Van Kleeck disagreed, saying that paperwork prepared by town attorney Jason Kovacs “expressly authorizes the town board to override the tax limit by the adoption of the law approved by a vote of 60 percent of the board. Sixty percent of a five-member board is three.”
Ultimately, the lengthy discussion resulted in the approval of the override and the adoption of the budget. But there were other hurdles to clear to get to that point. A base pay raise of around $10,000 for the town’s comptroller Tosca Sweeney to $92,000 was met with identical votes to the tax cap override, Van Kleeck, Secreto and DeGroodt all offered to reduce their salaries to make up the difference, but after the move was approved it was determined this would be a violation of state law.
In the end, approved salaries in the budget include the supervisor’s salary staying at $55,000; each of the four town board members will receive $10,400; the town clerk’s salary will increase to $70,000, a 13.72 percent rise; the highway superintendent will earn $92,289, reflecting a three percent increase; and the two town justices will maintain their salaries at $50,157.50 each.
Much of the meeting was also focused on funding a $1 million expense for establishing a reliable town-based ambulance service, itself a significant reason for the budget’s increase. Quigley suggested using appropriated fund balance to fund the emergency service, along with around $100,000 from the Town of Kingston as part of a multi-town ambulance relationship. Finally, he suggested removing health insurance benefits from the town board.
“All the towns within our area, that is, Esopus, Rosendale, Hurley, Town of Kingston, Town of Woodstock, and Town of Saugerties, the town board members do not receive health insurance benefits,” Quigley said. “And for the record, the City of Kingston aldermen had their health insurance benefits removed over 25 years ago.”
The suggestion came later in the meeting after the vote on overriding the tax cap, and Van Kleeck suggested that council members were deliberately kept in the dark by Quigley.
“You told me many years ago that all this is a game,” Van Kleeck said. “Everything you do is a game. That’s what you told me…I feel sorry for what this will do to the town, but I don’t have the time or the ability right now, between now and the end of this evening. But I can say that what you’ve come up with is going to help the taxpayers, no doubt, temporarily.”
Quigley’s proposal fell by a 3-2 vote, but town officials noted that even well into a budget’s operating year there are still opportunities to realize savings.
Quigley further discussed possible revenue sources, noting that some projects under review could generate fees, including a potential 60 megawatt battery storage facility.
“The town fee stream on the implementation of a battery storage facility is $9,000 per megawatt,” Quigley said. “That’s $540,000 in potential revenue next year. Should this project come to fruition now, granted, This won’t be permitted in a year and $540,000 won’t be realized next year, but the planning board application fee is $1,000 per megawatt. Not only do we have Mission Energy for 60 megawatts, we’ve had a meeting with another developer that has proposed a 250 megawatt project, which gives us the potential for the planning board fees of $250,000.And we’ve also had inquiries from a developer who purchased the Glide Path project who I’ve been unable to get in touch with, who wants to resurrect the battery storage facility up there.”
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