The 2021 General and Highway Budget for the Town of Newburgh was approved by the Town Board on October 26th 2020.                                                                                                                             

Supervisor Piaquadio made the following comment on the budget:. 

As the Town Supervisor and Chief Fiscal Officer for the Town of Newburgh, I am honored to present for your review the Town of Newburgh 2021 Preliminary Budget.

This proposed budget is a culmination of weeks of work, analyzing and reviewing historical data, trends and current expenditures along with revenue trends.

The Town’s budget, which totals approximately $43.4 million, represents an increase of less than 2% which is under the New York State mandated tax cap by approximately $140,000. 

The combined General and Highway Fund tax rate of $15.58 represents an increase of 2.9% over last year’s tax rate. The average home in the Town is assessed at $68,000, therefore, homeowners will pay approximately $30 more than last year for General and Highway funds.

The preparation of this budget was a joint effort between the Town Board, myself, and the accountant’s office, as well as all Department Heads.

This budget represents the leadership and our dedication to delivering police protection, well maintained roads, timely public works services, enjoyable recreation opportunities, clean water and other amenities. The focus was, as it has been in the past, to maintain essential services to the residents of the Town of Newburgh without a drastic increase in the tax rates.

We will maintain a total of 164 full-time employees and 83 part-time employees. The budget enforces our commitment to public safety with 44 budgeted full-time officers and 13 budgeted part-time officers along with continuing such programs as DARE. The budget also provides for 25 full-time highway employees and the use of seasonal help during snow-plowing.

The Town will expand its recreational activities by acquiring the Desmond Estate through the generosity of a Kaplan Foundation one million dollar grant and the town will continue

Mrs. Desmond’s wishes for conservation and educational enrichment for all citizens.

We will provide strong educational programs that will encourage children and adults to accept the responsibilities of conserving our natural resources for generations to come and instill the values of a healthy environment

Recreation programs remain unchanged with over 24 bus trips planned, operation of Dial-A-Bus, summer camps, and many other special events throughout the year.

My philosophy, as well as the Board’s, has been to “save for a rainy day”, as we strive to maintain a healthy fund balance. This philosophy has served us well and has allowed us to maintain a healthy financial position with strong reserve levels as confirmed by our Moody’s Aa2 bond rating

Recently the New York State Comptrollers’ Office rated 100 municipalities for financial stress with zero (0) being the least stressed and one hundred (100) being the most financially stressed. The Town of Newburgh received a rating of zero which is the best rating that can be obtained.

I want to thank all Town of Newburgh employees for their dedicated work that made this budget possible in these difficult times.