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Potsdam ups the ante in its protest of cuts in state aid to municipalities

Posted 2/13/19

By CRAIG FREILICH North Country Now POTSDAM – The village government has formalized its protest of proposed cuts in state aid to municipalities. The Board of Trustees approved a resolution at its …

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Potsdam ups the ante in its protest of cuts in state aid to municipalities

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

North Country Now

POTSDAM – The village government has formalized its protest of proposed cuts in state aid to municipalities.

The Board of Trustees approved a resolution at its Monday meeting saying the board “enthusiastically encourages the New York State Governor, the New York State Assembly, and the New York State Senate to consider the consequences of the proposed reduction of AIM for Local Governments and requests that such funding be replaced in the Budget...”

The village stands to lose $115,000 in the Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) program, plus none of the usual annual funding to help with severe winter weather, which amounted to about $25,000 last year, and no increase in Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS), which has lately amounted to $10,000 to $15,000 more each year.

These proposals are part of the 2019-20 spending proposal put forward by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Senate and Assembly have yet to act on the budget.

At a board meeting last month, the mayor, trustees and the administrator all spoke about the governor’s proposal, included in his budget plan, to cut the usual AIM funding to municipalities for whom the aid money amounted to less than two percent of their annual expenditures.

Nine of the 11 villages and 27 of the 32 townships in St. Lawrence County could have AIM aid cut in the budget being prepared in Albany, amounting to more the $1 million.

The biggest AIM cuts to villages in St. Lawrence County would be to Canton ($142,615), Massena ($132,671), and Potsdam ($111,684).

Cuts to town allotments include $175,546 in Massena, $53,881 in Norfolk, $42,494 in Stockholm, $32,713 in Fine, $28,883 in Lisbon, $27,405 in Louisville, and $20,115 in Russell.

The resolution approved by the village board has no legal effect. But it states on the record the village is concerned about the cuts to “essential” funding, and will send copies of the resolution to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators in the Senate and Assembly, stressing “the important role of AIM funding in Local Governments...”

The resolution stresses that “many Local Governments are already struggling financially, especially those in Northern New York,” pointing to the high proportion of tax exempt property in the village, rising costs for health insurance, Workmen’s Compensation and retirement, plus the state-imposed two percent limit on property tax increases in any year, which were to expire but which would become permanent if another proposal in the governor’s budget plan is approved.