The Orangetown Town Board is discussing the possibility of a furlough, layoffs, selling the sewer department and other options to knock down Supervisor Andy Stewart’s proposed $65 million budget that would require an estimated 9.19 percent tax hike, The Journal News/Lohud.com reports today.
Stewart’s budget plan, which he proposed last month, would cut town services and the Police Department and close the Broadacres Golf Course.
The GOP majority on the Town Board unveiled an extensive list of possible reductions to the Democratic supervisor’s tax and spending plan. Paul Valentine, a Town Board member, said selling the Department of Environmental Management and Engineering—which has about 40 employees—to Rockland County would allow Orangetown to pay off its debt and start cleaning up the former Rockland Psychiatric Center property.
“These are mostly food for thought,” Valentine said. “These are ideas we would like to consider going after. Especially the bigger ideas.”
Other options for trimming Stewart’s budget proposal include freezing capital outlay programs, ending the practice of allowing employees to use town cars and a weeklong furlough for the town’s 261 full-time employees.
