MY VIEW By Michael Queenan.

'The Village of Woodbury has a no-fluff budget’ This “My View” is in response to a May 27 Photo News article, “They created the village and created a monster,” with contributions from John Burke and Ralph Caruso. The creation of the Village of Woodbury added a second level of government to govern the same geographical area of the Town of Woodbury. The only tangible benefit in the creation of the Village of Woodbury was that no other village could be created within the boundaries of the Town of Woodbury. The Village Board proposed special legislation to the State Legislature that would allow the consolidation of governments with the nuance that no new village could be created within the town. This would result in the same benefit that the village currently provides with only one level of government. The Special Legislation Home Rule request passed in the New York State Senate; however, it is still in limbo in the State Assembly. I would hope Supervisor John Burke was misquoted when he reportedly said village officials insisted on dissolution in the May 27 Photo News article because the most important aspect of the special legislation was left out, which is not permitting any new village to be formed in the Town of Woodbury. The only demand that was made was by the town officials. They insisted that the Town Board would be the remaining governing body without any special elections or referendums. The Village Board acquiesced to this demand in order to move forward in an attempt to fulfill a campaign objective. Town has no say in zoning Caruso states in the Mary 27 article: “The creation of the village was to protect the zoning of the village. If they dissolve the village, they lose the protection.” To this day there is no evidence from anyone, including the Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury, that a village offers more zoning protection than what existed with the town. Actually, the fact is that now the Town of Woodbury has no say in any zoning within its boundaries. All zoning is under the control of the Village of Harriman or the Village of Woodbury. Caruso further states “the town could provide the same services to the village for one dollar” in the May 27 article. At the end of the day the services will be paid for in either your town or village tax levy, and it won’t be one dollar. The Village of Woodbury is not a club, organization, association or an alliance. The formation of the Village of Woodbury created a real government with real powers and the responsibility to govern within its boundaries. The first elected Village Board worked with an attorney to help guide them through the process of establishing a village government within the limits of New York State law. In 2007 as a member of the Town Board, I participated in the negotiation and drafting of the first inter-municipal agreement between the village and the town. The town and the village had legal representation and there was no disagreement as to the legality of the processes undertaken for the new dual government. Using surplus The village is experiencing the same economic hardships that everyone has encountered. Preparing the budget for the fiscal year 2011-12 was challenging. Our revenues plummeted for the fiscal year 2010-11, forcing us to reduce our projected revenues for the fiscal 2011-12 by $237,000. In past years we were able to take surplus money and subsidize the tax levy. In fiscal year 2009-10 we subsidized the tax levy by $650,000 and in fiscal year 2010-11 by $600,000. Unfortunately, with the severe decline in revenues, we had no surplus to apply toward the tax levy for fiscal year 2011-12. So if you take the $237,000 decline in revenue and the lack of a $600,000 surplus, you get a total of $837,000 that would have to be funded by the taxpayers. However, with the cooperation of all the village departments, we were actually able to reduce expenses for fiscal year 2011-12 by $272,817, enabling us to mitigate the impact from $837,000 down to $564,183. Residents in the Consolidated Sewer Tax Area realized an increased of $112.73 per unit primarily due to debt service to Orange County for the bond for the expansion of the Harriman Waste Water Treatment Plant. The treatment plant bond debt was an obligation agreed to years ago before the village was created. Village requested state audit The Village Board takes the financial health of the village and its residents seriously and works diligently to keep cost down. However, we must continue to improve our infrastructure to protect our environment and to avoid wasting money paying Department of Environmental Conservation fines. The Village Board took it upon itself to contact New York State Comptroller Di Napoli’s office and requested an audit. The comptroller’s office performed a risk assessment and it was determined that our financial records were organized in an impeccable manner requiring no further audit evaluation. The Village of Woodbury has a no-fluff budget. If you have any questions, concerns or issues that we can assist you with, please call 845-928-7558 to request a meeting with myself or one of our trustees. Michael Queenan is mayor of the Village of Woodbury.