recent argument in the Examiner<\/a> about the increase in flood mitigation costs, Trustees Howell and Solomon may claim that the Village\u2019s fiscal score \u201cdid not [get worse],\u201d but that the Comptroller\u2019s \u201cunderstanding [of the Village\u2019s finances] became more accurate.\u201d\u00a0 Such doublespeak cannot obscure reality.<\/p>\nThe reason for the increase?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spending.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The largest component of the Village of Pelham\u2019s stress score is the ratio of its general fund (think money in the bank) to its annual expenditures (spending).\u00a0 On this component, Mayor Mullen and his Village Board have spent Pelham into a peer group that includes Utica and Schenectady.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Worse, the current Trustees\u2019 approach to spending now includes increased spending in anticipation of unexpected revenue.\u00a0 At its September 22 meeting, they approved (unanimously, per usual) the purchase of an Avant 640i loader \u2013 cost not disclosed, but models seem to retail for $60,000 to $80,000 \u2013 by making use of the so-called \u201cContingency\u201d budget item.\u00a0 This item, which has been at most $320,000 in budgets since 2019, is over $780,000 for 2026-2027.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is this exploding \u201cContingency\u201d spending, along with increased debt service \u2013 including on almost $1 million in debt for Municipal Center furniture and window treatments, and over $300,000 to move a cellular antenna from the old firehouse to Pelham Green when Pelham Green gets the rental payments \u2013 that made the Village break the tax cap this year.<\/p>\n
Deputy Mayor Carpenter observed in the meeting that, based on discussions with the Village Administrator, the Village \u201cmight\u201d receive some unexpected revenue later this year, and this justifies breaking the \u201cContingency\u201d piggy bank now.\u00a0 What is the source and amount of this unexpected revenue?\u00a0 We asked but were told the information was not releasable under FOIL.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regardless of how much unexpected revenue comes in, the Mayor and his rubber stamp Board are continuing \u2013 and exceeding \u2013 their historical spending patterns.\u00a0 Spending in anticipation of unexpected revenue, moreover, is wholly inconsistent with \u201cbuilding up the Village\u2019s reserves.\u201d\u00a0 (You may hear from Mayor Mullen and his Trustees that this is what they are doing with tax increases; don\u2019t believe it.)\u00a0 Given the Comptroller\u2019s report, any unexpected revenue should be allocated to the general fund so Pelham may operate like more fiscally responsible peers; instead, those funds flew out the door before they ever came in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul Anzilotti<\/p>\n
Arthur Long<\/p>\n
Rhett Speros<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: This press release was provided by Paul Anzilotti, Arthur Long and Rhett Speros, candidates for the Village of Pelham Board of Trustees.\u00a0 The Pelham Examiner publishes press releases in the form received as a service to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News flash:\u00a0 The New York State Comptroller\u2019s office released its financial stress scores for New York\u2019s municipalities for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-365502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}