It was refreshing to talk to Terry Kelly of East Norwich, who is running for a seat on the Town of Oyster Bay Board. An Independent, Mr. Kelly is new to politics. He sort of qualified himself when he appeared at town hall to protest the town taxes – and their increase this year in spite of the fact that other municipalities were fighting against them.
Now, with the information that the town has lost its AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service to AA on the town’s General Obligation Bonds, there seems to have been a reason for the increase.
In the case of the U.S. Government losing their Standard & Poor’s rating – they were not downgraded by Moody’s or a third bond rating company. Oyster Bay only uses Standard & Poor’s.
Losing the bond rating means it will cost more to borrow money which means the cost of government goes up. You will note that the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Board of Education is very careful to keep their reserve funds in place. It sounds as if the community has to keep as close an eye on town budgets as it does with school budgets.
Maybe Mr. Kelly is just the person we need on the town board to do that. The election is on Tuesday, Nov. 8. You may recall that all the members of the Town Board are Republicans.
As to Town Supervisor John Venditto’s response to the bond rating drop, he said, “The Town, in conjunction with preparation of the 2012 Town budget, is developing a course of action to address issues related to the recent bond rating change.”
Well, we think more people will be watching the town budget this year, and asking more questions about the reserve funds and why they are dwindling. Bill Bleyer reported in Newsday that Standard & Poor’s said that in 2005 the town reserves were $20.3 million and now they have $375,000 in reserve funds.
Well, we guess it just sort of just dribbled away, a few million a year over that time. What do you think?
–DFK
