OSWEGO TOWN, NY – The Town of Oswego held a public hearing recently to hear all interested parties, either for or against the proposed 2012 town budget.
“No one spoke in favor or against the budget at the public hearing. In fact there was only one person in attendance,” said Victoria Mullen, town supervisor. “After the public hearing, the town board unanimously passed the 2012 budget.”
According to Mullen, the new spending plan has total appropriations of $1,832,327 and estimated revenue is $1,127,079.
The tax levy remains the same in 2012 – $705,358 (amount to be raised by taxes), she said, adding that “there is no tax increase for 2012!”
”We were able to include a cost of living raise for our employees in 2012. We included a slight increase in sales tax revenue due to the increase in our population. Our population has increased over the last 10 years by almost 800 residents,” the supervisor pointed out.
”Because we are ever vigilant trying to keep operational costs down, we bid out our insurances and changed our communication system this year resulting in sizable savings to our taxpayers,” she continued. “We were able to absorb the OCWA fire hydrant fee into our budget this year as operational expenses of the town and not go back to sending out individual hydrant fees on tax bills; as was done 10 years ago before we consolidated all the many water districts.”
Good fiscal management of the town has given residents there the second lowest town tax rate in the county, Mullen said, adding, “We are very proud of that.”
All the town’s infrastructure is built and financed by bonds, all built into the budget; the highway equipment is up to date and planned replacements taken into consideration for the future, Mullen said.
“In the future, we are facing increases in employee retirement and insurance costs. Also we will lose revenue from the Metropolitan pilot agreement from 25 years ago,” she said. “For now, we are good shape. It will be a challenge in the future. But, we never backed down from a challenge.”
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