Politics & Government

From the Mayor's Desk: Taxes, Coyotes and Little League All-Stars

A weekly column by Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh.

The following is a weekly column written by Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh expressing her views on some local issues within the town.

Planning for the 2011 Town Budget

We have started the process but planning for next year is going to be extremely difficult – to keep taxes down while maintaining the services that you expect – extremely difficult.

Find out what's happening in Harrisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One reason:  Our tax rate is based on the assessed valuation for the entire town – the assessment on your house added to the assessment on every other house and commercial building in the town forms that valuation.  

In 2009, 596 property owners filed for a reduction in their assessment. Our assessed value went down by about $3 million.  The reduction of assessed valuation will be proportionately higher.  Of course, everyone who files does not get the reduction they seek, and some don't get anything at all.  However, the cumulative impact is a definite negative for the town's budget and it will be more than the $3 million of 2009.

Find out what's happening in Harrisonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

On the positive side, at the end of June, we were approximately $1.2 million under budget on the expenditure side of the budget (non-salary spending.)  And I congratulate all the town employees for the manner in which they have responded to this crisis, which enabled us to achieve this savings.

Also, for the same six-month period, we are approximately $300,000 positive in the area of non-property tax revenue.  Sales taxes, mortgage fees, etc.

Why am I concerned?  When you look at the expected 2010 reduction in the tax base, I wonder how creative can we be with the 2011 budget.

Why am I bringing it to your attention? Because if our tax base continues to go down, and we do not get the non-tax income that we expected, what do we do?  I am bringing it up now because you have to be part of the solution.

In the last two years, we have reduced the number of Town employees by 47. Forty-seven people are no longer on the town payroll. Most full-time people retired, but the part-time people were told: "Sorry, we no longer have the money."  Services have suffered, for example: the change to curb-side pick-up for garbage and less frequent mowing of grass in parks and along streets.  No repaving of streets -- only filling potholes (except we will be repaving Pleasant Ridge Road with State money) and no purchase of new equipment as we would have to bond the cost of  those items and I am unwilling to do that. In the 2010 budget, we scheduled repayment of current bonds in the amount of $3.6 million. I am unwilling to add to that.

There is a limit to the cost-cutting of salaries and expenses if we seek to maintain the services that you expect.  The question is – are you, as residents – willing to give up some services to prevent tax increases?  I already know you don't want higher taxes. Part of the attraction of Harrison for those of us who have lived here for a long time as well as people seeking homes to buy is the level of services and the amenities that are available.  It is important that we keep those attributes. Have you practical, realistic ideas as to how we should go forward?  E-mail me your ideas: jwalsh@harrison-ny.gov

Those are the thoughts for you to ponder until next week. 

Coyotes 

A resident came into my office this week worrying about the coyotes. She hadn't seen any, nor had any of her friends, but she was worried. I repeated to her the advice that I put in one of these columns: If you see one just walking along, ignore it. If it stops and stares at you, make a lot of noise and scare it away. I suggested that she give each of her children a whistle, and keep a pot and metal spoon near the door as an additional source of noise. And, remember, never run away. That is an invitation to chase you!

Coyotes have been with us for a long time – and will continue to be here. But how many of us have ever seen one? Hopefully that situation will continue. With a little knowledge, you can be prepared if you ever do see one. 

Congratulations to the 9/10 - Year - Old Little League All-Stars

They are a dedicated, hard-working group. This year their hard work, even in this summer's heat and humidity, paid off. Following the principle of  "practice, practice, practice" to get better all the time, they won the District 20 Little League Championship. It was a seven inning game, with four lead changes, numerous diving grabs, and countless plays at the plate.  

Congratulations to every one of you!

Correction

Everyone makes mistakes.  And I made one last week in my column and erred when I listed the phone number for ads for the new town booklet.  It was a typo – I wrote "210", when the area code should have been "201," but I did not catch the mistake  Sorry!  However, there is still time if you want to place an ad in the 2010 Harrison booklet. We will distribute 2,000 to 2,500 copies free throughout town, and to all realtors.  The correct phone number for "Jerry" is 201-681-3988   and for "Adam," it is 917-682-6743.  A half page is $500. a quarter page is $350 and a business card is $200.  The more ads, the more free copies we will receive.  And more and more people will know about you and your store, restaurant, service etc.

We think you will be pleased with this booklet – it focuses on the best of Harrison. We want everyone to know all about our "best."


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