Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - The final Amherst Town Budget proposal was released Tuesday night by Supervisor Brian Kulpa. The proposal calls for a modest decrease in the tax rate.
Kulpa says the budget has a .02 percent tax rate cut, amounting to 32 cents for each resident. "Importantly, it's under the tax cap, and does allow for our levy to increase, because we have had good growth in the town of Amherst and good economic development," says Kulpa.
Kulpa says the town has worked hard at making sure costs stay in line. "We actually have done a pretty good job across the board in terms of holding a line on our fund balance, making sure that that still stays up over our self required 10%. But what we're really trying to do is make sure our contractual expenses and those types of things stay low, allow our growth in the town to to propel us forward and then cover expenses that we see increases like everybody else in insurance and retirement and salaries. In this case, again, for a second year in a row, we were able to do that. So it's been a lot of work and a lot of effort on the part of our finance team."
Kulpa says he's working on settling a few more contracts. "We have five bargaining units. But we're also operating, I think, fairly efficiently, and at the same time, we see an ever expanding need for senior services, for Youth Services developing throughout the town. So we're trying to accommodate those needs in smart ways and in efficient ways, in ways that are going to impact people's lives," says Kulpa.
Supervisor candidate Shawn Lavin says the town's been doing well in terms of capital spending, "but like anything else, we have to keep in line health care and pension costs. "
Republican candidate Dan Gagliardo says he has concerns as he took a preliminary look.