Town Board adopts ’21 Budget

AMENIA — Following a detailed process to develop next year’s fiscal plan while taking into account the constraints resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Town Board adopted the 2021 Budget at its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 19.

Board members convened via video conference due to the pandemic, live streaming their meeting to the “Amenia-TV” YouTube channel for the public to watch from the comfort of their homes. 

In her report, town Supervisor Victoria Perotti announced that the 2021 Adopted Budget’s town tax levy per 1,000 is 2.12202, indicating an increase of 0.14789 from the 2020 tax levy per thousand of 1.97413. She stated that this is an increase in the budget of approximately 0.07%. Including the town’s highway expenses, the amount to be raised by taxes has been calculated at $1,831,710. Perotti explained that the Town Board reviewed each line in the budget to reduce as much as it could and still be able to pay expenses.

“The town budget was hampered by the fact that we will receive less revenue due to COVID-19’s devastating effect on sales tax revenue and state revenue,” Perotti said. “In order to keep the increase as low as we could, we are using $275,000 of fund balance in the General Fund; $50,000 fund balance in the Highway Fund; and $15,000 fund balance in the Water Fund.”

Adding the general and highway funds together, total appropriations for next year’s budget have been calculated at $2,849,569 while the amount to be raised by taxes has been calculated at $1,831,710. According to the resolution for the budget, the tax levy imposed for town taxes totals $1,831,710.

As the meeting’s first resolution of the night, the Town Board unanimously voted to adopt the 2021 Budget, which can now be found online, at www.ameniany.gov.

Latest News

Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less
StepCrew stomps Norfolk Library for St. Patrick’s Day

As legend has it, St. Patrick was brought to the Emerald Isle when he was kidnapped by pirates and enslaved.

Though he eventually escaped, he returned and advanced Christianity throughout the island, according to his short biography, the “Confessio.”

Keep ReadingShow less
World War II drama on the stage in Copake

Constance Lopez, left, and Karissa Payson in "A Shayna Maidel," onstage through Sunday, March 24, at the Copake Grange.

Stephen Sanborn

There are three opportunities coming up in March — the 22nd, 23rd and 24th — to be transported through time and memory when The Two of Us Productions presents “A Shayna Maidel” at the Copake Grange.

Director Stephen Sanborn brings to life Barbara Lebow’s award-winning drama, weaving together the poignant reunion of two sisters after World War II through the haunting echoes of their past.

Keep ReadingShow less