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Massena village budget raises tax levy 1.25 percent, creates drug investigator position at police department

Posted 4/18/17

MASSENA -- The recently adopted 2017-18 village budget will raise the tax levy by 1.25 percent and create an investigator at the Massena Police Department that will be devoted to drug cases. “This …

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Massena village budget raises tax levy 1.25 percent, creates drug investigator position at police department

Posted

MASSENA -- The recently adopted 2017-18 village budget will raise the tax levy by 1.25 percent and create an investigator at the Massena Police Department that will be devoted to drug cases.

“This will enable the department to dedicate more resources to the opiate and heroin issues plaguing the community,” Currier said in a prepared budget statement.

He says this decision supports “the broad and long-term approach” the community is taking in dealing with the opiate problems they face.

“As the community employs a 360-degree approach in dealing with the opiate issues, we know prevention, education, treatment, community development and access to services are important,” Currier said. “Enforcement is as well. We still must hold those who bring this poison to our community accountable as well as those committing criminal offenses to support their addiction.

“A significant percentage of those who seek treatment for this addiction are doing so because they entered the criminal justice system. If not for the enforcement, they never would have sought treatment on their own.”

Mayor Currier says he praises the village board for supporting Chief Adam Love’s request to create a special investigator.

“I know the trustees hear very often from citizens who are dealing with drug issues in their neighborhoods. They heard the chief’s plan and decided to support it,” Currier said.

Love has noted that the regional drug epidemic, along with the other criminal cases, many of which are linked to the illegal drug trade, is overwhelming his current investigation team.

“This additional investigator will deal solely with the drug epidemic, so this will impact the drug trade and also allow the other investigators more time investigate other serious cases and bring them to successful conclusions. I thank the village board for standing behind me and recognizing the need for another investigator so we can take Massena back,” Currier said.

Expenditures are up slightly from last year, $9,576,806 in the new budget and $9,239,332 in 2016-17.

Revenues are also up slightly - $8,895,608 in the new budget and $8,797,126 last year.

The 2017-18 budget will use $681,198 in fund balance. Last year’s used $434,206.

Last year’s budget did not raise the tax levy.

The mayor’s proposed budget, which was released in March called for a 2.95 tax levy increase. The 1.25 percent increase that passed is below the state tax cap. Throughout the budget hearings, a number of adjustments to the budget were made, which resulted in the reduction.

Currier said the budget process is “somewhat fluid, because things change in the several months the budget is worked on.”

The budget was affected by the state budget deal where the village saw an increase in funding for road construction.

A couple of employee contracts were settled allowing the board to adjust numbers to reflect actual revenues and expenses. Departments heads began to work on budgets in the latter part of last year, then after they submit them in February to the mayor and until the time the board adopts a final spending plan a great deal of time has passed and many things change, according to Currier.

“A number of things that impact the budget numbers change throughout the process. When those numbers are not clear, we are careful to not over estimate revenues and under estimate expenses, and often time when the numbers become firm, our careful projections benefit our bottom line in the end,” the mayor said in the budget statement.

The adoption of 2017 spending plan marks the third year in a row the village has kept their budget under the state tax cap.

“I am very pleased that for the third time we came in under the tax cap, but we know we still have work to do. Year after year we find it difficult to maintain services while we control cost,” Currier said.