VALATIE–The Town Board passed the $2.4-million budget for 2015 Thursday, November 6 after a public hearing on the spending plan. The board rescheduled the monthly meeting from the regular second Monday of the month to Thursday for this month only.
The upcoming budget sets a tax rate of $1.19 per $1,000 of assessed value for properties inside the town. In the two villages, Valatie and Kinderhook, the rate is 53 cents.
Supervisor Pat Grattan said in a phone interview after the meeting that these were approximate numbers since town officials are awaiting final assessment figures, but he stressed that total assessed value of the town has gone down dramatically in the last six years. “We have less base to run on,” he said.
The budget, which is broken into three lines–general, general outside the village and highway department–comes to about $2.4 million, which Mr. Grattan said was about a 1% tax levy increase.
The supervisor said the board was able to negotiate a new union contract with the 11 union members in the Highway Department for 50-cent-per-hour raises every year for the next three years and that new employees will pay some of their health insurance costs. Also, if current employees change their plans from a signal beneficiary to a family insurance plan, they have to pay for part of their health coverage, Mr. Grattan said.
Mr. Grattan said the union contract still needs to be ratified.
No elected officials, including board members, the town clerk and highway superintendent, will receive raises. Raises will go to the building inspector, the codes enforcement officer and the Planning and Zoning Board secretary.
The next board meeting will be Monday, December 8 at 7 p.m. in the Martin H. Glynn Municipal Building on Church Street in Kinderhook.
To contact reporter Emilia Teasdale email eteasdale@columbiapaper.com.
