Susan Campriello • Poughkeepsie Journal• January 3, 2011
FISHKILL — With the new year comes implementation of the town’s five-year plan to alleviate a deficit Fishkill officials in the summer put at $1.3 million.
“We have a plan, and we’re moving forward,” Supervisor Joan Pagones said.
The Town Board, in a 3-2 vote, accepted the plan, part of a corrective-action plan that addresses concerns noted in an audit report issued by the Office of the State Comptroller in August. The corrective-action plan, dated Nov. 18, was submitted to the comptroller at the end of November.
Mark Johnson, a spokesman for the comptroller, said Thursday that his office had issued Fishkill a letter acknowledging receipt of the plan but that the office doesn’t normally offer towns comments on such plans.
The town’s 2011 budget includes $594,000 spread across several funds to implement the five-year plan, Pagones said, adding the town will start reducing the deficit after tax bills come in early this year.
Pagones will give a status report on the plan at the end of March and present quarterly budget reports in accordance with the corrective-action plan. She said Fishkill will replace only half of the six retirees this year to save money and the town will take out no bond-anticipation notes or bonds moving forward.
Councilmen Bob LaColla and Brian Callahan voted against the corrective-action plan, saying the full board did not have a chance to evaluate the town’s budget and the five-year plan together. The documents were prepared by the town’s Finance Committee and comptroller and presented to the public and the board in the fall. Pagones said the
councilmen offered no suggestions at that time.
LaColla is concerned the plan is unsustainable because it requires that the town assume no new long-term debt.
“I do not think it is reasonable to expect that no new debt will be required in the next five years, especially in light of the town’s recurring deficits over the last five years,” he said in an e-mail.
Callahan said the overall plan is “too little, too late” and should have been implemented the first time the town experienced a budget shortfall .
Reach Susan Campriello at scampriell@poughkee.gannett.com or 845-451-4518.