Village of New Paltz Mayor Tim Rogers accused the town government of severely mismanaging taxpayer funds and overtaxing its constituents in multiple public statements over the previous weeks.
In a Facebook post and subsequent public comment at the town board meeting on March 6, Rogers — who is running for the position of town supervisor against incumbent Amanda Gotto in the upcoming election — brought attention to the large unassigned fund balances that exist in the town’s budget.
A fund balance is a financial reserve or the total amount of money in a government budget after liabilities have been subtracted from assets. An unassigned fund balance is the amount of money in the financial reserve that has not been assigned to a specific purpose and can therefore be used for “rainy day” or generally unexpected expenses.
The town has multiple fund balances that are funded through taxpayers, with the largest of them being the A fund balance. According to the mayor’s Facebook post, the town A fund, which is responsible for town wide services, had a $5.8 million unassigned fund balance at the end of 2023. As a percentage, this is 60% of the expenses in the fund balance.
Other taxpayer-funded town fund balances, such as the DB fund balance, had an unassigned balance of 55% of expenses at year end of 2023.
While there is no state guideline on the amount of unassigned funds in a fund balance for local municipalities, local governments, such as the Ulster County and the Village of New Paltz, have either official or unofficial fund balance policies. The county sets its target for unassigned funds to cover 5-10% of general fund operating expenses, and the village sets a target between 20-23% according to the mayor.
Rogers claimed that despite having these financial reserves, the town increased taxes by 6.4% in the previous budget to pay for anticipated expenses, and has increased taxes by 78% over the last nine years.
He said if the town were to reduce the A fund balance from 60% to 20%, it would free up $3.8 million, or nearly 30% of the town’s total yearly tax levy, to pay for operational expenses.
When asked why the town was keeping these financial reserves, Town Supervisor Amanda Gotto said that when revenues come in higher than expenses, “that money can be set aside in a fund balance.”
According to Gotto, the money is set in an unassigned fund balance and can be used for future expenses and projects, such as the cost of building, renovating or purchasing a new town hall, a project that the town board has been investigating since 2015.
“The idea is that the fund balance is there to offset some of that [expense] so that the borrowing of money to do that job would be lessened somewhat,” Gotto said.
However, according to the supervisor, there is currently no plan or definitive timeline to build a new town hall.
“You don’t have a plan for a town hall, so you don’t know how much anything is going to cost,” Rogers said. “It is complete mismanagement to state that you are intentionally raising taxes for a project but then not disclosing that to the community [beforehand].”
He continued, “If we were raising money for this project, you should be disclosing that your tax rate is going up for those reasons.”
Both Rogers and Gotto are running for the position of town supervisor in the upcoming election. Gotto believes this to be the reason Rogers is making his public statements. “It’s political season right?” Gotto said. “It’s very nice to make comments like that to stir the pot. I suppose funds tend to do that.”
When asked if he was making these statements for political purposes, Rogers said, “I am absolutely stirring the pot for political purposes, and I am simultaneously stirring the pot because I’m a taxpayer who cares about this community and who cares about my tax bill.”
“I never fathomed in a million years that they were doing what they’re doing,” Rogers said.
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