As many of you have read in the Journal News, the Clarkstown PBA asked our Town Board to increase the number of sick day that officers can cash in each year stating that it would save the town money in the long run. Supervisor Gromack and the rest of the Town Board were duped into agreeing with this policy change, even though the most likely reason the PBA wanted this change was to avoid the possibility of losing these accumulated sick days in the future because the anti-public union clamor around the country is growing stronger each day. Attached is a speech our founder, Mike Hirsch, gave to the Town Board at a recent meeting criticizing this policy change.

The new salary schedule is out:

- The very bad news is that most of the 6 department heads, that belong to the Special Bargaining Unit, got salary increases for 2011 of over 5%, one got a 15% salary increase. This at a time when the average taxpayer is lucky to have a job, let alone a raise.

- The bad news is that Gromack has given himself and most of his non-union senior managers 2.5% raises for 2011.

- The only good news is that the 4 Council members, police chief, captains and Advisory Board members got no raise.

For the first time in recent memories, Clarkstown residents will see essentially a 0% tax increase for next year. This is a major victory for the Clarkstown Taxpayers, which formed in April 2009, and has demanded budget cuts and lower payroll. The Clarkstown Taxpayer organization certainly has had an impact on keeping last year's tax increase at 1.6% and this year's tax increase at 0%. This is especially true since taxes have increased by a cumulative 30% from 2005 to 2009 under the current administration before the Clarkstown Taxpayers were active. While 0% is good, our taxes could have actually decreased more if the Town Board didn't give 2.5% raises to all elected officials and a 3.8% raise to all appointment, non-union town employees. These raises are unconscionable and arrogant and come at a time when Clarkstown residents are still struggling with high employment, foreclosures and salary decreases or freezes.

Our response to Clarkstown's Proposed Raises - a Letter to the Editor:

The town of Clarkstown is holding $21 million of taxpayers’ money in a Reserve Fund for a rainy day, which amounts to 21% of Clarkstown’s annual tax receipts.   Before the town sold its transfer station in 2007, Clarkstown had a reserve of only $7 million. Also, the Clarkstown School system, which has a budget 25% greater than the town’s budget, only has a reserve of $6 million. While obviously some reserve is required to handle unforeseen revenue shortfalls, the current size of the town’s reserve seems

Clarkstown provides twenty nine employees (including people like the Town Insurance Manager) with town paid automobiles which are available to them on a 24/7 basis. The justification for this practice is that these people may need to come in at odd hours and it is appropriate to provide them with a vehicle instead of just reimbursing them for the mileage. We have not been given any formal accounting analysis which in fact supports this contention.

TALKING POINTS POLICE BUDGET    

-   Objective:  Reduce the Police Budget

-   The 2010 Police Budget:  

      a)   $29.9 million, without Benefits.  With Benefits it would be around
$37 - 38 million or 34% of the "Fund" part of the town budget   
 

TALKING POINTS on ADVISORY BOARDS

-   Town has 9 Advisory Boards costing almost $300,000/yr

-   6 Boards have 7 members

-   7 Boards have Chairmen and 3 Boards have Vice Chairmen

Our Group feels that there are too many members on each Board, the Board members are paid too much for a job, which, in the past, was a job paid with a small honorarium and the Boards are filled with many patronage  appointments.

This is the current Clarkstown PBA contract which expired 12/31/2008.  It covers all officers except the Chief, Captains, clerical employees and Auxiliary Police.   The town is taking the PBA to arbitration, but as you can read in the article about the Triborough Amendment to the Taylor Law, this bloated, perk filled contract remains in effect until a new contract is settled.  In these tough economic times where Clarkstown residents are losing their jobs and houses, THE CLARKSTOWN PBA IS DEMANDING MORE!!

A letter to Supervisor Gromack from our group detailing tax increases.

Supervisor A. J. Gromack                                       February 22, 2010