Alabama Town Supervisor Robert Crossen acknowledged Monday night that he should already have a draft budget for town board members to review but given the uncertainty over revenue streams, he isn't quite ready to present a budget that could require drastic cuts to services.
There is some hope that Congress will pass a new stimulus bill that will include aid to local governments, all the way down to the town and village level.
If that happens, the town could get $100,000 in aid, and if the county and the other municipalities get proportional aid from the Federal government, it could give the County Legislature enough leeway to share sales tax with towns and villages.
The Town of Alabama's typical share has been $450,000.
"We're not a very big town so when you take out $450,000, that's a lot of money," Crossen said. "That's people. That's things we're not going to be able to do."
That could mean, Crossen told the board, eliminating a town justice, not paving roads, eliminating part-time employees.
It's likely the town will need to raise property taxes in excess of the state limit and in preparation of that anticipating increase, the town board unanimously approved tax cap override legislation Monday night.
Crossen said county officials have been as cooperative as they can be while trying to negate the current financial crisis -- brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic.
"They have bent over backward to say we're under a lot of pressure here and we're going to work this out together with you guys," Crossen said.
