Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Courthouse Funds topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board members spar over whether $39 million was reserved for a courthouse or spent to lower taxes
Summary
Board members disputed whether multiple budget line items labeled "reserved for courthouse" summed to $39 million that was legally set aside; auditors urged passing formal resolutions to assign funds and avoid future confusion about intent and use.
A debate over whether past budgets actually set aside money for a courthouse dominated the Town Board of Greenburgh's discussion with auditors. Committee member (S3) said that multiple budget-year entries labeled "reserved for courthouse" aggregate to $39,000,000 and that those amounts "were reserved by resolution." He argued that the listing could reasonably be read as funds being set aside for the courthouse.
"Behind the scenes, even though it said reserved for courthouse, $39,000,000, that the money actually wasn't...the person looking at these budgets would think that because it says reserved for courthouse that it was actually being reserved for courthouse, and it wasn't," Committee member (S3) said, adding that the practice made the budgets appear to inflate a reserved purpose that was then used for other spending.
Chair (S1) countered that the board voted on the budgets and used the funds to lower taxes. "Now we used it to bring down the taxes, and you voted for it," the Chair said, noting that budget votes had been public and approved by the board.
Auditor Jeff told the board the correct governance approach is to pass a formal resolution when the intent is to earmark funds so the assignment appears explicitly on the financial statements. "We recommended at that time for the board to pass a resolution to assign the fund out because it was my understanding... it was supposed to be a 1 year item," Jeff said, recommending the practice to reduce future misunderstandings.
Committee members pointed to specific budget documentation: a cited item (account 1989-54905) on page 22 of the town's 2022 tentative budget showed a 2022 tentative amount of $7,400,000 alongside earlier-year entries; Committee member (S3) said the controller's aggregation of several year entries produced the $39,000,000 figure.
Board members discussed the trade-off between using fund balance to limit near-term tax increases and rebuilding fund balance for long-term capital needs like a courthouse. Auditors advised the board to follow resolution-based assignment when earmarking funds going forward and the board agreed to implement that step. The auditors also said they would work with the controller and town staff to reflect agreed contract changes before the next vote.
