Arcadia taxes to drop
By John Zornow

Arcadia Supervisor Dom Bartucca credits the Fire Departments, Newark-Arcadia Vollunteer Ambulance, Newark Public Library, and the Alex Eligh Community Center for holding the line in their respective budgets as one of the reasons why Arcadia's tax rate will be down for 1999.

$762,319 needs to be raised through taxation towards a total budget of $1,905,167. The tax rate per thousand of assessed valuation for Arcadia residents outside the village of Newark will be down 4%, compared with last year. Those living inside the village will see their taxes drop by 11 percent.

Corresponding tax rates are $3.06 per thousand, outside the village, and $1.353 per thousand inside the village.

Supervisor Bartucca indicated that, despite the loss of assessment dollars through court challenges by NYSEG and a temporary loss of tax dollars from the former Stuart Park, the town was able to upgrade services, such as hiring a full time code enforcement officer.

The town board unanimously approved the budget with only one workshop. The budget included raises for all town employees of an average of 3%. Also included were raises for the supervisor (7.5%) and additional amounts for the budget officer ($1300). The salary of the Supervisor will be $14,500 compared with $13,500 last year, and the salary of the supervisor's clerk will be raised from $20,600 to $21,480, an increase of 4.3 %.

Bartucca credits his clerk, Joan Grambo, who prepared the budget, for identifying areas that needed trimming and that were funded to a greater amount than necessary.

"Joan looked at every item in the budget, cut where possible, but left enough cushion for unforseen emegencies," said Bartucca. "Joan's banking experience was one of the reasons I hired her."

Bartucca promised that close scrutiny of all budget details will be an ongoing effort. "Simply copying last year's budget and adding for inflation, is not good enough. I begin with the premise that any tax is too much."

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