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SCARSDALE, N.Y. – Scarsdale taxpayers can get an idea about where the 2012-2013 village budget is headed this week when the board of trustees and Village manager Alfred Gatta hold a public operating budget briefing session at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in village hall.
The session will come the night after the finance committee discusses a memorandum from Gatta suggesting changes in his original budget proposal based on the panel's deliberations thus far.
Friday, Gatta said his first-pass budget included expenditure and revenue plan that proposed to stay within the overall 2 percent cap on the tax levy and with the exemptions permitted under the law, the tax rate increase was projected to be 4.43 percent.
"The village board has been very concerned that the Jan. 23 proposal made too many cuts in the operating budget," Gatta said. "The budgets for the three largest departments of police, fire and public works were actually to be less in 2012-13 than in the current year.
He said the village board also was concerned with numerous deferrals of capital projects and was looking for options for how to do some of the necessary projects, “such as road paving, storm sewer improvements, firehouse renovation and sanitary storm improvements while fitting it into a somewhat palatable tax rate increase.”
"As is obvious," he said, "it is a difficult task for the village board to try to balance the needs of the Village with a reasonable tax rate increase."
On Jan. 24, the Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees passed a resolution calling for a public hearing at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 to get input on a local law authorizing the trustees to exceed the cap. While residents get to vote on the school budget, the trustees make the decision on the village budget.
The finance committee meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with Gatta to further discuss the figures. The meeting will take place in the trustees room in village hall. Thursday night's session will be held in the third-floor meeting room at village hall.
