Auditor addresses tax levy question at town meeting

The Monroe Town Board held its first meeting of the month on Monday, March 2, which included a presentation from PKF O’Connor Davies that discussed an audit of the town budget from 2024 and a preliminary analysis of 2025.

Melissa Szot, a partner of O’Connor Davies for the town of Monroe audit, was at the meeting to help explain to residents what has been discussed with the 2025 budget in regards to a tax levy issue. Szot assured the board and public that no illegal acts or fraud were identified during the 2024 audit.

Negative number wrongly inputted into reported tax levy

In regards to the tax levy, Szot explained that a negative number was input into the reported tax levy for this year’s budget, which is not allowed to occur. Because of this, it was listed as a zero on the tax line, which is a marked 100 percent decrease.

“Unfortunately, the system that prints the tax bills, it does not print anything with a 0 dollar amount that’s due, so you do not see the negative 100 percent of your V fund. If that was there, then you could see that there was an offset, so there’s really no significant impact overall to the participants within the part town fund, because it’s the same base,” said Szot.

Not taxing a 100 percent increase

Town Board Supervisor Maureen Richardson then discussed what that means for the public’s taxes in the future. She stated, “Because of that negative number that everyone’s been talking about and arguing about, it was zeroed out, as we already stated a few times. What you will see when you open next year’s bills, when this board finalizes our budget, no matter what we charge you, even if it is one dollar, it is going to be a 100 percent increase because it is non-existent right now. We are not taxing you an increase of 100 percent, it’s just the fact that it was zero and now we have a charge.”

Supervisor Richardson continued, “We’ve seen a lot of fluctuations, and we are going to try to message as best we can to the public that it’s not as drastic as it seems. Also to clarify, there is no extra money ... In reality, that negative number in the budget was a falsehood and should not have taken away from those other funds at all ...This tax levy was budgeted, it just wasn’t advertised appropriately.”

Supervisor Richardson then emphasized how the board will be as transparent as possible as the audit process continues and thanked Szot for her presentation.

Support for NY MELT Act

The board also passed a resolution to support the NY MELT Act, which was proposed by concerned residents in the community. The discussion of the potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Chester prompted many resident concerns about ICE activity in their communities. The act prevents ICE agents from unnecessarily covering their faces purely to obscure their identity while conducting operations and requires officers to be identifiable by their uniform.

New appointments

Other motions passed by the board during the meeting included the appointment of Adam Rodd as planning board attorney alternate and David Chen as a zoning board attorney. The board also announced that it is looking for a new deputy town clerk and a new bookkeeper. Due to a lack of financial staff, the board approved a motion to utilize consulting financial experts to help out the town while they look for a new bookkeeper.

“We’re just in a situation where our intention is to call in an hourly consultant to solve issues that are above the pay grade of our current staff,” said Supervisor Richardson. “There’s one person doing a five person job.”

Investment in oil spill remediation

The board also awarded a bid to Core Drilling LLC related to a Highway Department Remediation plan. Supervisor Richardson stated on the matter, “Unfortunately there was an oil spill over a decade ago and it never got really remediated. We will now be doing core samples in and around the Highway Department in the parking lot to determine the extent of the contamination and how to properly remediate it.”

Residents call for support for New York For All legislation

The meeting concluded with public comment, in which two residents urged the board to consider signing a resolution to support the New York For All legislation, which aims to prevent “New York’s state and local government agencies, including police and sheriffs, from colluding with ICE, disclosing sensitive information, and diverting personnel or other resources to further federal immigration enforcement,” according to the New York Immigration Coalition website. Supervisor Richardson said they would be taking a look over the legislation.

Concerns raised over committee support

Resident Richard Traino asked how the budget that the board was given in December will affect any potential committees that were discussed at past meetings, such as a theater committee. Councilwoman Mary Bingham stated that since many committees are volunteers that committees should still be able to have meetings, but mentioned that monetary support may not be achievable this year.

“If that committee says, ‘We want to have the town pay for something,’ we may not be able to allocate for this year, but it’s something we could consider in the following year’s budget,” said Councilwoman Bingham. Supervisor Richardson then emphasized that they have been trying to apply for more grants and will be focusing on saving money where they can.