2021 budgets approved for Halfmoon and Clifton Park
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » The governing boards for the towns of Clifton Park and Halfmoon have unanimously approved budgets for the coming year that continues both municipalities’ long-standing policies of having no town property taxes.
The Town of Halfmoon will reduce appropriations for the General Fund and the Highway Fund by an estimated $700,000. The town of Clifton Park’s budget will decrease spending from the General Fund and increase it slightly for the Highway Fund. Both municipalities will dip into surplus funds next year.
With no property taxes, the two towns practice conservative spending policies and use their respective shares of Saratoga County sales and mortgage taxes as their main revenue streams. Both towns levy highway taxes to help fund theirHighway Departments.
According to figures provided by the towns, Halfmoon estimates it will see a $602,000 decrease next year in its share of the county sales tax revenue. The town of Clifton Park on the other hand expects to see an increase of $324, 000.
The vote to accept the 2021 Halfmoon budget was taken immediately after a public hearing on the preliminary budget held at the start of the Nov. 4 Town Board meeting. The hearing drew no comments from the public and none from the board.
The Town of Halfmoon estimates it will receive $6.54 million in county sales tax revenue next year, a decrease of more than $.5 million from this year’s share. Consequently, the budget, which includes the General Fund andHighway Fund, will reduce expenditures by $683,728 next year.
The town also plans to budget $100,000 from its appropriated fund balance. Last year the town used $91,404 fromthe same fund to balance the budget.
The use of the fund balance is viewed by the town administration as a numerical necessity as everything will bedone to see that it remains untouched. As an example, Halfmoon has had a spending freeze in place for more than a year.
To balance the highway budget the town will increase the total amount expected from the highway tax to $1,776,040; an increase of $186,640 from this year.
“While the fund balance of $100,000 is being used, we do not expect that it will ever need to be used due to the conservative fiscal budgeting processes we have used,” Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen said in an email on the tentative budget. “We used realistic budget figures that factor in statistical data showingCOVID-19 effects will continue into next year.”
Tollisen added that the budget includes raises for town employees as per the town’s five-year plan.
The vote to accept the 2021 Clifton Park budget was undertaken as part of the Nov. 16 Town Board meeting. Though there was no discussion surrounding the vote, the unanimous board approval came after a contentious discussion on the preliminary budget in October, and a simi
members at the Nov. 5 public hearing.
In Clifton Park, the 2021 budget shows expenditures for next year for the General Fund and the Highway Fund increasing by $57,758. The town is estimating its share of the county sales tax revenue will total $12.8 million, an increase of $323,000 from what it expects to get this year.
The preliminary budget approved unanimously on Nov. 16 shows a total expenditure for the General Fund of $18,171,564, a decrease in spending of $86,254 from this year. The Highway Fund totals $5,897,003, an increase in expenditures next year of $144,012.
Total expenditures in the 2021 town budget for the General Fund and the Highway Fund totals $24,068,567 in 2021.
The situation in Clifton Park surrounding the board’s acceptance of the budget was quite a bit different from that in Halfmoon.
Where the 2021 preliminary budget in Halfmoon had no noticeable changes from the tentative budget and was accepted by that board without comments, the monetary changes proposed to Clifton Park’s preliminary budget drew repeated questioning from Town Board members.
The focus of the discussions was Barrett’s attempt to retain a $200,000 expenditure from the $810,000 police contract budget line. When he could find no support fromthe board for the proposal, the preliminary budget moved forward putting it $91,000 out of balance.
Rather thanmaking cuts to the budget, the board eventually agreed to take $91,000 from the town’s surplus fund; a first for the town in many years.
The budget includes additional money for paving and to continue its practice of investing in vehicles and equipment annually. Other areas of the budget with significant expenditures are healthcare and recreational venue upgrades.
As part of the budget approval process, the board agreed to a departmental reconfiguration that placed staff from the Transfer Station
under the supervision of the Buildings and Grounds Department. Salary increases for several supervisory personnel were part of the reconfiguration.
Both Clifton Park and Halfmoon surprisingly show they have continued to maintain overall cost control for the health benefits that cover town employees. The expenditure line is flat for these benefits in bothtownswhen compared to 2020.