Supervisor responds to resident's tax question

Tom LaTorre wrote last week regarding why Village residents tax rate decreased by 2 percent while Town residents rate rose slightly by 1.8 percent.

I explained why to Mr. LaTorre when he came to our budget hearing and he seemed satisfied but it may be helpful to do so for the rest of our residents.

In New York State, a Town with a Village (in our case three villages) is only allowed to charge Village residents for services they do not provide themselves.

These charges are segregated in separate funds, the A and the B Fund.

Charges to Villages residents (A Fund charges) are for the operation of the Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes, Justice Court, the Assessor, Animal Control and some other minor items.

Only Town residents pay the taxes for the Highway department, Police, building department and recreation.

This is where the bulk of our personnel and hence payroll charges are.

It is the fringe benefits charges for health care and New York State retirement system on these payroll costs that have consistently exceeded the tax cap the past few years.

With smaller departments in the A fund matched with revenues that by law are directed to that fund, we are able to present a budget with a slight decrease to Village residents.

The Town residents B Fund charges did not have quite enough revenue to allow a decrease in that fund however we were able to keep the increase to less than the mandatory cap.

Warwick still has the lowest town tax rate of any town in Orange County that operates a police department, this through solid management and continual cost-cutting.

I hope I have answered Tom's question and given all our residents a clearer picture of municipal budgeting in New York State.

Michael P. Sweeton
Warwick Town Supervisor