Community Corner

Status Quo Leads To Foley's Fury

RTM Leaves Budget Largely Unchanged; To The Chagrin Of Member

On Tuesday night, the erased Dr. John Foley

The Representative Town Meeting approved 13 budgets, with very minimal changes. It cut one budget by $350, and added a $3,000 appeal by Quaker Hill Fire Company.

Not that the approval came easily. Foley, a Republican member of the RTM, proposed several cuts, all of which were denied.

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Several RTM members argued that the department heads who put together the budgets largely do a good job, and should be trusted. If that’s the attitude, then why does the RTM even see the budgets, Foley argued.

“I would love to go to just have the board of finance take care of the budget, and I will have three more nights to spend with my family in May,” Foley said, referring to the RTM’s three-day budget review. “But we are here, representing the town. We have an obligation to ask tough questions and look at the budget. If we aren’t going to do anything, why did we even come out tonight?”

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Foley tried to cut $8,890 from the town’s baseball program, because baseball received nearly quadruple what other town sports were allotted. He tried to cut $3,372 from the conservation commission, because its budget came in with an increase higher than 3 percent, the prescribed guideline. And he supported a motion to cut $5,000 from recreation and parks' programs after he deemed several programs to be inefficient.

Unlike the night before, where he argued successfully to deny an appeal from SEAT, all of the motions he supported were denied. Frustrated, at the break in the middle of the meeting, he left and did not return.

Other Members' Reactions

Several RTM members spoke against Foley’s cuts for a variety of reasons.

For example, when Foley tried to cut the recreation and parks department budget, RTM member Teresa Wilensky noted the budget was more than 6 percent lower than last year. To further cut it is wrong, she said.

“The town hires the department heads to manage their budget,” Wilensky said. “If they come in at, or in this case well below the guideline, we need to trust that they know the best way to handle their budgets.”

Recreation and Parks Assistant Director Ryan McNamara agreed. He called Foley’s proposed cuts “insulting,” and a “bit of micromanaging.”

Foley did receive some support from some other RTM Republicans, such as Rodney Pinkham and Kim Alfultis. But the majority of members rejected his actions.

“(The department heads) come in the guidelines; we have to trust that they know the best way to use the budget,” member Michael Cannamela said. “They know what they are doing more than what we do.”

And when Foley tried to cut things such as baseball, members from the audience who had ties to baseball stood up and complained. Foley kept saying, “The town is in different times, we cannot afford this,” although was overruled.

After Foley left, the RTM went through the budgets much faster. It did reject an appeal by Goshen Fire Chief Neil Wiseman to buy a pumper this year instead of next.

At the end of the meeting, around 11:30 p.m., Board of Finance member J.W. "Bill" Sheehan proposed a complicated method to cut $450,000 way from the transfer to capital and nonrecurring expenditure fund. Tired by the four-hour meeting, and annoyed by the last minute idea, they group agreed to think about it and discuss it tonight at its final budget meeting.

The RTM will meet tonight to finish their budget review, and take final action. Once the body does, the budget will become final.

Taxes are expected to rise 4.6 percent over last year. If Sheehan’s proposal went through, the tax rate would be lowered by approximately 0.12 mills. The RTM will act on Sheehan’s proposal tonight.


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