City adopts 2019 budget with 0.48 percent tax increase
NORWICH – The City of Norwich Common Council unanimously approved the proposed $12.3 million 2019 budget at its meeting Tuesday night.
The adopted budget includes a 0.48 percent tax increase on the average property owner in the city, which will result in a $6.05 increase in annual taxes on taxpayers, and a general fund line of $8.4 million.
It is a slight decrease from the $12.4 million 2018 budget, which included a 1.81 percent increase in tax rate and an average cost impact of $22.50 per year of the city’s average property owner.
City of Norwich Mayor Christine Carnrike commended City Clerk/Director of Finance Dee DuFour and the finance department for putting the budget together, as well as department heads for working with the city through the process.
She noted that she doesn’t favor raising taxes without a significant increase or marked improvement of services, and said, “In light of all that the 2019 budget includes, I think that 0.48 percent is certainly warranted. It’s a slight increase that is well below the property tax cap.”
City of Norwich Alderman Ward 1 Matthew Caldwell also said a lot of hard work went into the budget. He said, “I think it’s pretty fair and fair to everybody. That’s what I think we’re here to do.”
During the budget adoption process, the council discussed authorizing a revised and newly formatted non-unit compensation schedule. Both Carnrike and Caldwell described the former schedule as “cumbersome” with 80 different rates of pay at the last meeting on December 4, and the council agreed to consider a new schedule proposed by Caldwell.
“I think the objective here really is I’m looking to improve transparency, not only for the taxpayers and public, but for the government body and for the management team, so that when we have refills – and hopefully we don’t have them often – we want to quickly identify the position title, rate of pay someone’s earning when that happens, and a reasonable range to refill those positions,” said Caldwell.
Alderman Ward 5 David Zieno said he would support the revised schedule under the pretense that they reevaluate it early next year to increase some of the maximum rates of pays to be more competitive, and also to devise a way to evaluate employees and determine the increases they would receive.
Zieno said he looked at a salary survey for cities in New York State with populations ranging from 3,000 to 15,000, and he was seeing some similar numbers in the revised schedule, but said, “...one of my concerns was the maximum pay in the range in several cases seemed to be a little low compared to what’s out there ... I would support the revised schedule but I think we should take another look at it and possibly increase some of those maximums so that we’re in step with what’s out there and it doesn’t lock people down to salaries that are less than what’s out there.”
Alderman Ward 2 Brian Doliver said, “I think you’re right. I think I would agree to do it tonight provided that we would discuss it because I think we need to fine tune some things. I think we’re all in agreeance we should do something perhaps different.”
The council proceeded to unanimously approve a resolution to authorize the revised non-unit compensation schedule.
The next City of Norwich Common Council meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 18 in Norwich City Court.
The adopted budget includes a 0.48 percent tax increase on the average property owner in the city, which will result in a $6.05 increase in annual taxes on taxpayers, and a general fund line of $8.4 million.
It is a slight decrease from the $12.4 million 2018 budget, which included a 1.81 percent increase in tax rate and an average cost impact of $22.50 per year of the city’s average property owner.
City of Norwich Mayor Christine Carnrike commended City Clerk/Director of Finance Dee DuFour and the finance department for putting the budget together, as well as department heads for working with the city through the process.
She noted that she doesn’t favor raising taxes without a significant increase or marked improvement of services, and said, “In light of all that the 2019 budget includes, I think that 0.48 percent is certainly warranted. It’s a slight increase that is well below the property tax cap.”
City of Norwich Alderman Ward 1 Matthew Caldwell also said a lot of hard work went into the budget. He said, “I think it’s pretty fair and fair to everybody. That’s what I think we’re here to do.”
During the budget adoption process, the council discussed authorizing a revised and newly formatted non-unit compensation schedule. Both Carnrike and Caldwell described the former schedule as “cumbersome” with 80 different rates of pay at the last meeting on December 4, and the council agreed to consider a new schedule proposed by Caldwell.
“I think the objective here really is I’m looking to improve transparency, not only for the taxpayers and public, but for the government body and for the management team, so that when we have refills – and hopefully we don’t have them often – we want to quickly identify the position title, rate of pay someone’s earning when that happens, and a reasonable range to refill those positions,” said Caldwell.
Alderman Ward 5 David Zieno said he would support the revised schedule under the pretense that they reevaluate it early next year to increase some of the maximum rates of pays to be more competitive, and also to devise a way to evaluate employees and determine the increases they would receive.
Zieno said he looked at a salary survey for cities in New York State with populations ranging from 3,000 to 15,000, and he was seeing some similar numbers in the revised schedule, but said, “...one of my concerns was the maximum pay in the range in several cases seemed to be a little low compared to what’s out there ... I would support the revised schedule but I think we should take another look at it and possibly increase some of those maximums so that we’re in step with what’s out there and it doesn’t lock people down to salaries that are less than what’s out there.”
Alderman Ward 2 Brian Doliver said, “I think you’re right. I think I would agree to do it tonight provided that we would discuss it because I think we need to fine tune some things. I think we’re all in agreeance we should do something perhaps different.”
The council proceeded to unanimously approve a resolution to authorize the revised non-unit compensation schedule.
The next City of Norwich Common Council meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 18 in Norwich City Court.
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