Board takes ax to Lancaster budget
Lancaster’s Town Board members whacked $175,000 Monday from a proposed $27.7 million spending plan for 2009 and eliminated a controversial health insurance buyout plan for themselves.
“We’re all in crisis mode,” said Councilman Ronald Ruffino Sr., who introduced the cuts as a package during the board’s work session. “We all need to tighten our belts.”
For a house assessed at $100,000 in the town outside the villages of Lancaster and Depew, the tax bill for 2009 would go up by $22.71, from $926.73 to $949.44.
For a home within the Village of Lancaster assessed at $100,000, the tax bill would drop $16.29, from $598.73 to $582.44. And in the Village of Depew, that same house would fetch a tax bill of $241 compared with last year’s $244.
The board adopted both the 2009 budget and a separate resolution submitted by Ruffino to delete the town’s health insurance buyout for Town Board members only in a 4-1 vote.
Previously, Town Board members could opt to receive a health insurance buyout of $6,700 if they had insurance from an outside source.
“I don’t think this goes far enough,” said Councilman Daniel J. Amatura, who voted “no” on the buyout resolution. “It should include all elected officials.”
Superintendent Robert H. Giza, the town clerk, highway superintendent and two town justices will still be eligible to receive town health insurance and the insurance buyout.
While some residents said they were pleased with the board’s budget cuts, others found the trims insufficient, and one even asked that the budget resolution be tabled.
Dan Beutler, a union employee who works in Buffalo and lives in Lancaster, said he hasn’t had a pay raise in three years. “I don’t think any raises should be included in this budget,” he told the board.
Now in the midst of contract negotiations with the unions representing its employees, the town has budgeted for the possibility of 3 percent raises for workers. Board members will receive a 3 percent raise, but Ruffino said they will see a 27 percent decrease in their salaries as a result of the loss of the health insurance buyout.
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