Ivins opened the comment period with some remarks of his own. He said the city had been presented a dilemma since the governor had proposed cutting VLT spending in half because now they have to either pass a budget by the end of Nov. 30 or the comprehensive budget that he originally proposed in October would be the city’s budget for 2009.
Ivins said since the governor did not have to come out with the state’s comprehensive budget until mid-December, it could potentially take until April before they know where they are at in terms of VLT aid. He said after the council passed its 2009 budget they would have until the first week of January to amend the budget and tax rate, but after that point they would have to submit their changes for billing purposes.
“We have a small window to amend what we pass,” he said.
After the city has submitted the tax rate to the county they can still amend the budget, but they will have to live with the tax rate set in place, he said.
Ivins offered three possible options that the city could take in terms of what budget to pass. The options he presented include leaving in the VLT funds in the budget until they find out what is going to happen with them and make cuts later; make some cuts now and final adjustments when they find out what is going to happen with VLT revenue or make cuts as if VLT revenue is gone and reinstate the cuts if the city receives the revenue.
“Either way, we are all going to continue to fight for VLT aid,” he said.
Ivins’ intention of the pre-meeting public comment period centered around getting input from residents on what they think the city should do.
John Kraus of 226 Grand Avenue likened the current budget process to being on a teeter totter.
“First we were up, then we were down, then we were back up again and now we are back down,” he said.
Kraus commended the city council’s lobbying efforts in Albany, but also suggested that the city try to lobby the county for the 25 percent portion of VLT aid they receive from the city. The county is currently supposed to receive $1.2 million in VLT aid, but if the proposed cuts are passed by the state legislature it would get approximately $550,000. Kraus suggested that the Saratoga County Supervisors help the city in lobbying county officials for the money.
“We all need to share the pain,” he said.
Ivins said the final budget workshop will be held Monday and he hopes that they will have reached some sort of an agreement at that time. He urged city residents who were not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting to send requests to the city by email or by calling (518) 581-3000
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