The Pine Plains Preliminary Budget for 2023 calls for revenues, expenditures, and appropriations ultimately totaling a tax bill of $1,519,607.03 Changes from last year’s expenditures include raising the Town Supervisor’s salary 10%, from $20,000 to $22,000, an 18+% raise for Town Board members, from $5,800 to $6,800, a decrease of $4,000 in the salary for the Highway Superintendent; a decrease of $3,000 for Pine Plains Seniors (Adult Recreation), no additional funding for the Library to hire help for their expanded hours, and a rise in the budget for celebrations – from $1000 to $5,000.
The budget and salaries were uploaded to the Town website on October 24th and can be seen at:
https://www.pineplains-ny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2023-Preliminary-Budget.pdf.
After a public hearing on November 17 at 7:15pm, the budget will be voted on by the Town Board.
Want to know how a Municipal Budget works?
Municipal budgets can be a guessing game. Many of the expenditures are predictions of need. For instance, the Highway Department has to predict (in August) what the weather will be like in the winter in order to budget for buying road salt, hiring extra plow drivers, and executing planned and unplanned road repairs. One must allocate money for unseen emergencies. Prices rise unexpectedly, major storms hit, state and federal mandates happen. Insurance costs do not coincide with budget dates, but are determined every Spring, and so one has to make an informed prediction for these figures as well.
The Pine Plains Budget is divided according to agencies: Town, Highway, Water Department, and Lighting District. (The Fire Department has a separate budget).
Revenues are listed first for each entity. Then expenditures. There is a number assigned to every item listed. The ultimate tax calculation is determined by subtracting revenues from expenses, and deciding whether the Town Board needs to vote to exceed the tax cap, enacted in 2012–a legal action they must take, as the mandate for raises in taxes is capped at 2% or less per year, depending on what the Governor determines for that year. If the Town Board does not want to raise taxes beyond the tax cap, they then appropriate money to cover the extra funding from a savings account the Town maintains for just such measures. The Highway Superintendent does the same thing, as does the Water Engineer.