MONTICELLO - A budget preparation report put together by Village of Monticello Treasurer, Gary Glasher, was presented to the Village Board for approval Wednesday, June 28, in a public hearing. 

Tensions rose high as the board discussed the meticulously calculated budget in great detail as the public watched, listened and commented. 

This year’s budget was the subject of intense scrutiny by both the public and the Board of Trustees in light of the recent release of the preliminary report of a personnel and forensics audit on the previous year’s budget.

Findings of the report have not yet fully released to the public as the preliminary draft has only been released to the Village Board currently. 

Mayor George Nikolados confirmed with the public that once the official report is finalized and issued, it will be presented. 

 The village is facing a deficit of $2,200,000 in next fiscal year’s budget, according to Glasher. 

Glasher states the deficit is due in part to the fact that “the board has not made the hard decision they need to make and chose not to override the New York State tax cap stating taxes cannot be raised above 2 percent.” In order to be able to close the deficit, the village would have to implement and estimated 56 percent tax increase currently made impossible by not overriding the cap. 

In an attempt to ease anxiety around the deficit, Mayor Nikolados encouraged the public.

“The deficit may look bad but it always ends up being a quarter of whats on paper. We made over a million dollars in back taxes last year and hopefully that will increase this year. The hope is as things get developed eventually the deficit will close,” Nikolads said, continuing to explain that state officials agree that the village will eventually close the deficit as well. 

Nevertheless, the present public was not so convinced, with many expressing dismay in the lack of a youth recreational center within the village. 

The village is currently in the process of erecting a splash-pad and basketball courts for Monticello’s youth, and have been trying to implement the building of a full-time recreational youth center for many years, according to former Mayor Gordon Jenkins. 

However, Mayor Nikolados stated “we are obviously a depressed village and to build a full time recreational center for what could be millions of dollars is not going to happen.” 

He went on to explain that the village is “in a county with a 300 million dollar budget opposed to our 6 million dollar budget. Last year the county lowered taxes by .5 percent, but that million dollars that the public saved on taxes could have been used to build and maintain  youth centers across the county for the next 10 years.”

As previously reported by the Democrat, Sullivan County has the highest opioid overdose death rate per capita in the state of New York. Nikolados believe’s that stems from “not putting enough investment in our county’s youth,” going on to state “I think the county owes it to the Village of Monticello after constantly using our resources, taking them away, and not paying us for them. It is time to put pressure on the county do something for our youth.”

The Democrat reached out to the county for comment and had not heard anything at time of publication.