By Nancy Peckenham
The acting manager of the City of Newburgh, Richard Herbek, unveiled a tentative 2012 budget Monday night that calls for the elimination of 15 police officers, along with three code enforcers, 1.5 other office personnel and two parking enforcement officers for an overall reduction of nearly 10 percent of the city workforce.
That’s what Herbek said was needed to create a balanced general fund required by the Newburgh Fiscal Recovery Act of 2010.
The city’s $40.8 million tentative budget would result in an increase in the tax levy of 3.39 percent. However, due to a drop in the assessed values, homestead property owners would face a 10.85 percent tax increase and non-homestead owners a 14.84 percent increase. Herbek explained several factors that allow the city to raise taxes above the two percent property tax cap adopted by the state earlier this year.
Herbek told the council Monday night that in the two years since he took the position as acting city manager, he has focused on reinventing and downsizing city government. His tentative budget reflects his effort to merge city services, including moving code enforcement duties to the city’s fire department.
Herbek said he would work with Police Chief Michael Ferrara to reorganize his department but Ferrara was less optimistic, saying that it will have a “devastating and dismantling effect on the entire police department.” Ferrara has 73 full-time officers on the city payroll and says the department has been “limping in 2011” because of cutbacks in the current budget.
A preliminary city budget goes to city council on October 11 and final adoption is set for November 28.
While council members have yet to study the tentative budget in detail, councilwoman Marge Bell said on Monday that she is “extremely apprehensive” about the what she has seen so far.
Loading...
