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Cairo town board passes 2009 budget with 7.64% tax increase

By Hilary Hawke

CAIRO — The Cairo Town Board passed the 2009 budget with taxes going up 7.64 percent, a decrease of 5.6 percent from the 13.24 percent tax hike proposed a couple of weeks ago at the preliminary budget hearing.

A homeowner with property assessed at $100,000 will see taxes rise from $5.89 cents per $1,000 to $6.34 cents per $1,000, or roughly $450 per year. Of the $6.34, $3.22 is earmarked for the general fund and $3.12 for the highway fund.

A resolution to increase water rates by 15 percent, sewer rates by 50 percent and EDU’s by 5 percent passed unanimously. The last time sewer rates were raised was in 2002 and water rates last increased in January 2005.

The Board also passed a resolution to adopt a Code of Ethics. There was some disagreement about whether applicants should give up other town positions if selected for the Ethics Board to avoid conflicts of interest. But Board members stressed the Code of Ethics was a resolution, not local law and could be changed.

Highway Superintendent Steven Rumph discussed a request for new equipment to replace the 1978 Oshkosh snowplows currently in service. The department has requested a four-wheel-drive two-seat, dual-purpose summer-winter vehicle which, with the necessary upgrades, would run roughly $200,000.

But perhaps the most contentious issue addressed at the standing-room-only budget meeting and commented on during the public remarks segment involved health insurance costs for Town Board members, justices and the town clerk.

Some residents, angry with the tax increase, said health insurance costs for part-time employees is excessive and should be trimmed back or rescinded altogether.

Kathy McGlone said the increase may force her to choose between diabetes medicines and paying bills. “Why are you spending $55,000 on a baseball field at the town park?” she said. “Why are you budgeting $3,500 for flowers on Main Street?”

One man said, “We have to trim budgets in our households and you should have to do that as well. We need necessities, not niceties.”

“Half of the people in Cairo are senior citizens,” Walter Prapolsky said. “Tax increases mean they have to choose between food and medicine. In plain English, I think that stinks.”

Another woman commented it was unreasonable to ask a town with a small, mostly noncommercial tax base to pay for part-time employee health insurance.

Sean Hackleton, one of the town’s highway employees, said, “How can the Board accept health insurance for free while your employees have to pay for it?”

Cairo Township Taxpayers Association member John Morgese said he has had to cut back on dinners out, golfing and travel

But Town Supervisor John Coyne pointed out he had proposed several amendments to the Board Health Coverage from rescinding it to asking board members to pay 25 percent of the costs.

The Board, however, voted 3-2 to continue with the benefits.

Other items on the agenda included accepting Mike Villela’s resignation from the Town Planning Board and appointing Dan Benoit as Deputy Chair to fill the vacancy.

Also discussed was the annual Cairo Holiday Stroll scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 30. Starting at noon, it will feature vendors, crafters, carolers and bands. Some of the sponsors and participants include the Cairo Fire Department, the Ladies Auxiliary, the Chamber of Commerce and local schools.

There will be a parade at 4pm and the carved wooden bears and butterflies along Main Street will be auctioned off at Gallagher’s. The Fire Department will serve hot soup.

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