PART 3: THE NEED FOR A REALISTIC CAPITAL PLAN

By Supervisor Susan Siegel

Over time, things wear out and need to be repaired, upgraded or replaced.

It happens in our homes, to our roofs, heating and air conditioning systems, and driveways. And it happens to the Town’s infrastructure – on a larger scale.

Wherever you go in town, you’ll see roads, bridges and culverts in need of repair. Water and sewer lines, many over 30 years old, need to be replaced. Several of our recreational facilities are in a state of disrepair or are closed because they’re unsafe to use. And some of our buildings have leaking roofs and other serious problems.

As homeowners, many of us have learned a painful lesson: if we keep putting off routine preventive maintenance, small problems become big problems, and eventually what would have been an affordable repair needs to be completely replaced – and at a much higher cost.

The Town is no different. For more than a decade, the Town ignored a leaking roof at the Parks and Recreation Department. The result: the leak continued, mold grew inside the building, the building was condemned as a health hazard and eventually demolished, -- and taxpayers ended up paying $213,000 for two “temporary” trailers to house the department.

Before we make more short sighted decisions, it’s time we take a hard look at our infrastructure needs. As a community, we need to have an honest and open dialogue that helps us distinguish between what we “need” to do from what we’d “like” to do. When resources are limited, as they are today, we need to assign priorities to future capital projects. We can’t have it all.

We also need to determine how much the high priority projects will cost, how much we can afford to spend each year on capital projects, where the money to finance them will come from, and, in what order the projects will be implemented.

In the past, the Town has been able to fund many, but not all, of its capital projects from its fund balance, or rainy day fund. Last year, for example, the $500,000 replacement of the YCCC boiler was funded from surplus. This won’t be possible in 2011, however, because the previous administration used $500,000 of the fund balance to lower 2010 taxes and the fund’s current balance has dipped below the point where additional funds can be safely or prudently withdrawn for anything except emergencies.

Which means that if and when the Town decides to proceed with the planned $1 million plus worth of improvements to the Sherman Court bridge and reconstruction of a portion of Baptist Church Road – projects that have been on the Town’s “must do” list since 2007 – the money will have to be borrowed and the interest on the borrowing will be an added expense in the budget for the next 30 years. (A $1 million bond issue will cost an estimated $100,000 a year in debt service and add half a percent to the annual tax rate).

Which leads to the next crucial – and painful – decision the Town Board will have to make in December when it adopts the 2011 budget: how to balance the added costs of borrowing to fund needed infrastructure improvements against the added costs of continuing the same level of municipal services and, at the same time, limiting the size of a tax increase.

The Sherman Court bridge and Baptist Church Road projects aren’t the only “must do” infrastructure improvement waiting approval and financing – there’s a long list that I’ll be presenting to the Town Board in October. One of the projects involves another leaking roof – and like the previous roof problem, this one had been known for several years. And we already know that we’ll have to borrow to pay for the new library boiler that’s in the process of being installed.

In the supporting document attached below is a list of the possible capital projects, including both needed infrastructure improvements and “it would be nice to have” projects, that I’ll be presenting to the Town Board in October. Also, watch the Town Board meeting agendas for when the capital budget discussions will take place. What we fund and when should be a community decision, so I encourage you to participate in the discussions.

In the next article in this budget series, I’ll be taking a summary look at all the needs and fiscal constraints facing the Town as I put together the tentative 2011 budget that will be presented to the Town Board and the public on October 29th.