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What’s In Your Wallet?

Most people don’t have a clue what is in a town’s tentative budget. Most people aren’t paying attention because they are busy working and struggling to survive, especially during these very difficult times. But if people were paying attention they might be asking how the Town Board could be raising taxes and giving raises in excess of $840,000. They might ask why 40 positions are getting raises of over 10 percent. And they might ask, how can you do this to us?

In the Supervisor’s budget message he notes that the tentative budget avoids layoffs of personnel and does not cut services. “It should be noted that a large portion of the increase includes $1.8 million which is attributable to pension and hospitalization costs. Increased fuel costs also is a factor.” No mention of raises.

According to preliminary number crunching here are some startling numbers:

40 people are scheduled to receive a 10 percent or higher salary increase.
10 people will see their salary’s grow by better than or equal to 6 percent
108 will see an increase of greater than 5 percent.

These increases go way beyond the 0 - 3 percent salary increase many employees will see and what we have heard about.

Here are some items from the tentative budget, Appendix E Salaries:

The Town’s tentative budget includes a 34 percent increase for one Assistant Town Attorney and a 19.7 percent increase for a second Assistant Town Attorney.
A 10.7 percent increase was granted to the Town Attorney when he was hired in 2012 but is not reflected in the 2012 adopted budget.
The Comptrollers office has three people scheduled to receive increases of 10 -10.6 percent.
Account 1340, Stipends will rise by 67 percent.
Town Parks – Account 1620 – four positions will be increased by 10.3-11.6 percent.
All members of the Planning Board and Board of Zoning Appeals will receive 10 percent increases.
This list is a sampling of departments and is not exclusive.

What are they thinking? Maybe they are thinking that no one is paying attention. Or maybe they are thinking that repeating the phrase “I am a fiscal conservative” over and over will give them credibility. While the Town Supervisor prepares the budget, Town Council members review and may challenge the tentative budget. The sound of silence from the board members has been deafening and speaks volumes about their lack of understanding of just how hard times are for so many residents.

Don’t take my word for it, check out the 2013 Tentative Budget, Appendix E Salaries, it is about 12 pages long. Capital One Asks “What’s in Your Wallet” you don’t have to look far - it is the Smithtown Town Board.

Pat