Within the past week, the Village of Ellenville has publicly confirmed what many have been saying in private — the municipality is having trouble with its operating budget. As early as November certain officials described the village as "in economic straits" while other officials said that this "money crunch" phenomenon happens "every year" and the village has always been able to muddle through to the end of its fiscal year in June. Unfortunately, there are still several months to the fiscal year's finish line where costs and debts can be rolled into next year's budget and taxes can be raised to cover last year's expenses.

So, on Friday, the village board held an emergency meeting to explore the possibility of hiring a collection agency to assist the village in collecting overdue taxes on 120 properties (nearly 10%) in the hopes of making up their shortfall. .

To beef up the village's coffers, Ellenville's officials have floated the idea to sell the municipality's art collection, chiefly made up of a series of paintings by E.L. Henry, a former resident of Cragsmoor. In addition, officials are counting on the sale of a number of village properties to help carry the municipality through to next year. But they do not say whether any one has made an offer to purchase any of these pieces of real estate..

To look at these issues is merely to account for all the symptoms of a much deeper problem. What happens when the village either cannot sell its wares or runs out of assets to sell? How is it possible to run a responsible government year to year when its operating budget includes the monies that the village hopes to get from asset sales? .

The answer is, you don't. You don't because you cannot finance annual programs with one time revenue streams like asset sales. As Americans are finding out all over the country, you cannot continue to pay today's bills with tomorrow's revenue — especially when that source of revenue is not a "sure thing". .

At recent meetings village officials have been taken to task for their questionable accounting and purchasing practices — spending the money first and getting board approval second. A similar argument came up with regard to the board not knowing about change orders needed to complete the renovation of the new village hall. At that time, the argument was that the orders were made because the village manager had the authority to act as purchasing agent and that to include the board in every financial decision would have drastically slowed down the building's renovations..

But what is the reason for the village board to constantly remain a step behind the fiscal health of the community they are supposed to oversee? Why are they, seemingly, always the last to know? .

To his credit, the mayor appears to be taking something of a hard line against budget increases as he has moved to stop all non-contractual raises and asked each department head to cut 5% from their 2007-08 budget. The village board must get ahead of its purchasing policy and start making tough decisions about cutting expenditures or pursuing dissolution as local taxpayers will not be able to continue shouldering this increasing tax burden.

COMMENTS about this article (118)