Maybrook approves 4-percent increase, cancels parade

- Audeen Moore
Posted 4/29/20

The Maybrook Village Board adopted its 2020-21 annual budget at a “teleconference” public meeting Monday. The nearly $3.9 million budget carries a tax rate of $15.99 per $1,000 of …

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Maybrook approves 4-percent increase, cancels parade

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The Maybrook Village Board adopted its 2020-21 annual budget at a “teleconference” public meeting Monday. The nearly $3.9 million budget carries a tax rate of $15.99 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, an increase of four percent.

The adopted budget represents a decrease of nearly $27,000 from the original tentative budget, which had carried a tax rate increase of over five percent. Most board members praised the adopted budget and the decrease from over five to four percent.

Trustee James Barnett called the adopted budget “beautiful” when compared to the original and said Mayor Dennis Leahy had done an “excellent job” in paring the numbers down. Trustee Kevin Greany called the reduced figures “a great job”. But Deputy Mayor Robert Pritchard, who voted no on the budget’s adoption, reiterated his feelings on a proposed $7,000 raise for Mayor Leahy which did not make it through the recent cuts.

“I believe the Mayor should have a raise in this budget,” he said. “It is not there. Therefore, I am voting against it.”

Pritchard had argued at the hearing that Leahy deserved a substantial raise for all the time and work he spends on village business and for the expertise and leadership skills he brings to the job. At that time, both Trustees James Barnett and Kevin Greany agreed that Leahy deserves a raise but that the current economic climate precludes that. Pay raises of an average of two percent for village employees are included in the adopted budget.

The adopted budget totals $3,879,550.41, with a tax rate of $15.99 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for property owners in the Town of Montgomery portion of the village (which is the wide majority). That is a 61-cent increase (four percent). The owner of a home assessed at $150,000 will pay $2,398.50 for the new village year, an increase of $91.

Village property owners in the Town of Hamptonburgh would pay $9.76 (a 2.7 percent decrease). The owner of a home assessed at $150,00 will pay $1,464, an decrease of $40.50.

In other business, Trustee Greany, who chairs the annual Memorial Day parade committee, announced there will not be a Memorial Day parade this year because of the current COVID-19 limitations.

“I am saddened to say that,” he said, “with all the service men and women who have died for us.”

Trustee Daryl Capozzoli remembered his many years in the village and its Memorial Day parades.

“In my 48 years in this village,” he said, “I have only missed two parades. And that’s because I was serving in the military. This is a sad, sad time.”

If virus limitations improve, Greany said, the village may be able to have a Memorial Day service at the Frederick Myers Veterans Memorial Park.

The meeting was recorded and a copy will be available on the village website (www.villageofmaybrook.com) as soon as possible.