RFH 2010, Cover Stories, Opinion

Editorial: What to Do With the Town Surplus ... And More

Sat, Dec 11, 2010

Let's face it, residents of the Town of Hamilton have a right to be skeptical of those who run this usually overlooked branch of local government. Now, the current board has an opportunity to undo that skepticism -- and mistrust -- when it decides what to do with the huge fund surplus that was amassed in previous years.

An audit by the state found that the town had accumulated $1.2 million -- about the same amount as one year's budget -- in excess funds. Instead of moving unspent funds from one budget year to the next, the town put that money aside and started its budget at zero.

Would that we all could do that.

Click here to take our survey on what to do with the surplus.

Earlier this week, town Supervisor Bob Kuiper called a public hearing and meeting to used $50,000 more of that "found" money to all but eliminate any tax increase for the 2011 budget. (The board earlier approved spending $50,000 to reduce taxes for residents outside the two villages to 8 percent. Kuiper sought a second bite at the budgetary apple when people complained this increase was too much.)

That the town had a surplus of $1.2 million is no huge issue of government malfeasance. If anything, the board and previous supervisor Walt Jaquay meant well; they all but held sacred the idea of paying cash for any expensive new equipment that was needed. It wanted to avoid debt ... unlike almost every other governmental entity on the planet.

(That the board had no clear picture of what its financial picture was for several years is much more distressing than the accumulation of unspent money. It's one thing for a town resident to not open bank statements or balance their checkbook. It is something else entirely for the town treasurer to have decided to forgo such a basic function of the job.)

Now, that the board's verbal sparing and political silliness has ended, it  -- and especially Supervisor Kuiper -- have an opportunity to make things better going forward. A good course of action -- taken before another dime of the surplus is spent -- ought to include:

1. Creation of an independent citizens committee -- devoid of anyone from the town board -- to study what ought to be done with the remaining fund balance. Such a committee could and ought to be drawn from the people who were at Thursday's public hearing. And, not the well-worn, politically-connected ones. This is an issue that is best solved with fresh thinking. And, this oughn't be a launching pad for those with political aspirations or those within the parties with axes to grind. It should be given a reasonable budget -- Lord knows the money exists! -- to hire someone savvy on municipal financial issues that can provide professional guidance. Then it ought to be given a reasonable timeline -- 60 days sounds fair -- and left alone to deliver to the board as many ideas as possible.
2. The town needs to begin honest and serious negotiations with the villages of Hamilton and Earlville to right past fiscal wrongs. The residents of the villages have been double taxed for some services because of mistakes by the town. This appears to be a thing of the past as of the 2011 budget, but village taxpayers ought to be made whole for previous errors. It is only right.
3. Likewise, the town and villages ought to get serious about sharing services. Some of this is done now. More ought to be done starting in the new year. Each has skills, staff, equipment and knowledge that could benefit the other. Taken to its logical conclusion, the village and town of Hamilton ought to be under one roof.
4. The board needs to post every financial document it has on the Web. Now. This is the second decade of the 21st century, a time when HCS elementary school kids use iPods to do their school work. The town board ought to be at least at that level. In the time it took to read this editorial, anyone with a modest computer and 20 minutes could create a Web presence for the town at no cost. Zero. There is no excuse not to do this immediately. None. Then populate it with the budget, every monthly balance sheet, meeting minutes, etc.
5. There is no need or excuse to hold town board meetings in a facility that discourages public involvement. The village board meets at the courthouse; so should the town board. There is no reason not to. Thursday's meeting attracted about 30 people, a number that probably would have exceeded the fire marshal's limits had they even been able to get in. Part of the clamor at Thursday's meeting was about transparancy. Trustee Dave Holcomb made a good point Thursday when he said the turnout at the public hearing on the surplus exceeded the total number of people to attend all of the board meetings in his 12 years of service. No doubt true. But if people do wish to attend, there ought to be a place for them to sit.
6. Rethink having a bookkeeper who cannot attend meetings. There were many questions at Thursday's meeting that were answered with, "I don't know ..." Even armed with copies of the budget, some could not provide answers. Kuiper mentioned that the town's new bookkeeper -- who presumably had those answers -- lives, in of all places, Cicero, fully an hour away. It is hard to tell which is more distressing: that the town cannot find a bookkeeper locally or that Kuiper and the board could not answer questions about the budget they approved and amended.
7. Finally, no more "do overs" on issues like taxes and spending sizable sums of taxpayer money. Thursday's hastily called public hearing and budget amendment came in response, according to Kuiper, to citizen outcry over an 8 percent tax increase when the town was sitting on a pile of cash. Kuiper created a budget, which the board discussed and voted on. End of story. Like every other municipal government, the town ought to have had the courage of its convictions to live with that. Explain it to the public and have faith in the process. Instead, we saw what we complain about in Albany and Washington, D.C. played out in the Hamilton Pubic Library Community Room. Better still: create a responsible budget in the first place!

The Town of Hamilton's budget surplus and how it is dealt with ought to be a good thing for the taxpayers. We don't give a fig about how it reflects on the previous administration or the one in power today. There was no wrong doing. Drop it and move on. Now. (And, this is especially good advice for those in both parties who want to use the audit and the board's reaction to it as a bludgeon. This is not about Democrats and Republicans.)

On Thursday, trustees Peter Darby and Dave Crumb voted against spending $50,000 more to further lower taxes. Both said it was a bad idea to go for the quick fix and defer the problem until the 2012 budget. Darby made the excellent suggestion that the board lower taxes not by throwing money at them, but by cutting spending. Imagine that! This is something that should be done regardless.    

Finally, at Thursday's meeting, Suzanne Martin rightfully asked why no one had apologized to the taxpayers for this mess. Good question. Before the meeting ended, Holcomb, gentleman that he is, offered that apology.

And, now is the time to start reaping the benefits of this issue.

Comments(3):

1. editorial: town surplus

   Saturday, December 11, 2010 Peter

   Dave, There is one serious factual inaccuracy in your editorial. You refer to the 1.2 million "excess funds" as if it were sitting aside in a piggy bank someplace. The 1.2 million identified in the auditor's report was the "fund balance" sometime during the summer of 2009. The fund balance is a snapshot at any given moment of all of our monetary assets. Every time we write a check it goes down. By the time we start receiving the 2011 tax revenues it will be below 1 million. That number includes a capital reserve fund set aside for large purchases of something in excess of $400,000. This is used to smooth out the cost of large, recurring, but not annual expenses. In 2011 we will be looking at the purchase of a new plow truck, a new loader, and a new pick up with a total cost approaching $300,000. Bob has asked the highway superintendent for a ten year equipment replacement plan so we know how much should be saved each year to replenish this fund. In addition, there should be some balance in our check book at the end of the year. The board needs to have a discussion about how much that should be. When all of that is taken into account the amount of "excess funds" will be somewhere less than $500,000. $100,000 of that just went into the 2011 budget so now we are talking about less than $400,000. Still a lot of money, but not 1.2 million.

2. Getting Real about the Citizens' Committee

   Friday, December 17, 2010 Wanda Warren

   I disagree with the editorial's approach to determining membership on the citizens committee. To make attendance at the Dec. 9 meeting a requirement ignores the fact that the meeting was announced very late and not in the Town's official newspaper. Yes, a notice was on the Town Office door for a couple of days, but that hardly constituted adequate notice, especially when it was very bad weather for walking. Those who attended the meeting were not representative of a wide range of citizen interests. Second, it would be a serious mistake not to have members of the Town Council part of these discussions. In NY the Town Council has executive authority and MUST vote on all expenditures. Council members are even now discovering how many of the "excess" funds are already spent or needed to pay for essential functions like highway maintenance. It is not wise to have extended discussion of the uses of the fund balance without the council being present. Council members have been asking for such a discussion for a couple of months. Remember, the majority of the present Council has been in office only a year and had no part in the development of the surplus fund balance or the matters criticized by the state controller. In addition, some whom you might reject as "well-worn" and olitically connected" are apt to be those who have been paying attention to Town government, attending meetings, etc. They are more apt to have thought about Town issues than those at the Dec. 9 meeting who did not even know the names of the Town officers. Of course, you are right about the website. When I first started to pay attention to Town Government I could find no convenient way even to know who was on the Town Council. Wanda Warren Berry

3. Rethink having a bookkeeper who cannot attend meetings.

   Thursday, December 30, 2010 Bob

   Mr. Kulper can’t answer question about the budget! As the Town Supervisor isn’t Mr. Kulper instrumental in creating the budget? Why can’t Mr. Kulper answer question about a budget that he created? The bookkeeping has been outsourced to Robert L Tackabury LLC in Hamilton since June of 2010. Why does Mr. Kulper need the bookkeeper to explain his budget and why does anyone care that he lives in Cicero? These are just some of the questions I have and I’m sure many others do too. It deeply saddens me to think that the citizens Hamilton have once again elected a supervisor that is not capable of dealing with the financial matters of this town. The citizen of this town should stand up for their rights as taxpayers and demand competence from the Town Supervisor and the Board.