Community Corner

Sound Off: What Would You Cut From Village Budget?

Trustees discuss the possibility of additional layoffs, department spending reductions during budget session.

Village budget discussions continued Wednesday as trustees considered different scenarios to get below the state-mandated 2 percent tax cap.

Tough decisions lie ahead for both them and department heads, who were already asked to reduce their respective budgets by 3 percent.

One scenario, which accounted for the firefighter layoffs, included $55,712,266 in budget appropriations, an implied tax rate of $46.57 and an 8.71 percent tax increase.

Continued talks however this week are now asking department heads to reduce their proposed spending plans by an additional 4.5 percent ($2.2 million in spending reductions) in order to achieve a 2 percent or less cap.

According to finance chair and trustee Andrew Cavanaugh, in the budget to be filed these reductions will be taken in the salary and related expense (benefits) lines.

Everything from additional layoffs to the removal of seasonal staff at the playgrounds September through June to bonding equipment purchases, doing away with back door garbage pick up and even possibly charging village-based sports teams a rental fee for field use were all suggested at what was intended to be the final budget session March 20. (Another meeting, however, has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, March 27.)

"Perhaps our residents, and us as taxpayers as well, have to recognize that this theory of not paying for ball fields doesn't work and you've got to pay for certain things," trustee Brian Daughney said, using the field use rental fees as an example. "Maybe that's what we need to do. People have to appreciate that certain things have certain costs. And right now people don't want to recognize that."

Trustee Dennis Donnelly, referring to additional layoffs, added, "The employees we have are all great employees. They work hard. They do their job. They come to work at a great rate. They don't go home sick. All that being said, the realities of what we're dealing with is we can't have that many of them. It has nothing to do with anybody. It's an unfortunate situation. But it's just based on the fact we can't have the amount of people we have or else we're going to tax people to death. We have good employees. It's just the way it is."

Cavanaugh argued, and outgoing mayor Don Brudie concurred, that layoffs would result in a diminution of services. "There are 21,000 people who live in Garden City for a reason," Cavanaugh, who voted against the firefighter layoffs, said. "There's another side of the coin. You have to be mindful of that."

According to Kevin Ocker, chair of the board of cultural and recreational affairs, his suggestion to not hire seasonal staff for the playgrounds from September through June included the development of a volunteer program to provide oversight and a presence in the parks. "I would much prefer to have our own employees doing this but with the current state of the budget we were simply thinking 'out of the box,'' he said.

This suggestion, after discussion amongst trustees, was however not approved because the board majority was concerned about liability, amongst other issues.

Where you would make cuts? Let us know in the comments section below.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here