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AUBURN - In the first forum in the race for town supervisor, Owasco candidates focused on budgetary issues, bringing distinct perspectives to fiscal issues.
Challenger Ed Wagner, supported by the Republican and Conservative parties, has been a town board member for the past two years. He assured Owasco voters that his common sense approach would limit the cost of government, curtailing unnecessary use of reserve funds, reflecting 18 years of managerial business experience.

“We have a $2 million budget that uses 30 percent for reserves,” Wagner said. He indicated that the total would be depleted if a rainy day occurred.

Incumbent John Klink, on the Democratic and Independence tickets, adopted a mellow stance toward past policies and the proposed budget for 2010. He said Owasco's main source of revenue - sales taxes - had decreased.

“The town lives and dies on its sales tax, $20,000 a year,” Klink said.

Over the past five to seven years, the sales tax has fluctuated, he said, and it's down 4.8 percent right now.

Klink said the board spent six sessions working on the proposed budget with real efforts to cut back expenditures, allowing a sizeable fund balance. He said the board monitors and adjusts these funds monthly.

Wagner said this year's fund balance was depleted by $359,000, criticizing a budget that has to be balanced with a fund balance.

He suggested dividing planning into long-term, intermediate and short-term items.

Klink said next year's budget was developed by a board that was well aware of the economic situation.

He described Owasco's problems prior to his term as supervisor, which led to a Department of Environmental Conservation Consent Order in 2008, ordering the town to have a new wastewater collection system in place by October 2010 and proof that it is functioning properly by June 2011.

The town had pumped water into a ditch draining into a nearby creek in order to keep residents' basements from flooding.

Pumping in that location went back 50 or 60 years, Klink said, with lines that were put in more than 60 years ago which now need repair or replacement. The town only repaired part of the line in Water District No. 1. But a snowstorm and rain in Dec. 2007 overloaded the system and the town was in violation of its State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

“I was appalled when I first heard about the illegal sewer dumping into the creek that was approved by Klink,” Wagner said.

He called the $1.5 million repair project “in essence a Band-Aid solution.”

He noted there was no water-sewer separation so that water goes into the sewer line and backs up at the Auburn line.

Engineers said it would be “a fantastic cost” to separate water and sewer lines, Klink said, and that the town is in the middle of the project. He said the problem would be solved and that the water would no longer go into people's homes.

Wagner also cited misleading rate increases for water/sewer resulting from incorrect data supplied to engineers by the town. Illegal retrobilling occurred and had to be corrected. He said that he met with strong resistance from board members but finally got the support of the state attorney general's office to rectify the issue.

He noted that last year rates were raised on Dec. 22 and the billing period ended four or five days later, so people were charged at the new rates for the whole quarter and that overcharging also occurred in the spring.

Klink said the audit of town books moved from 19 comments in 2006 to only two last year, so the process has improved.

While the town board is expected to remain fairly divided between Democrats and Republicans, both candidates had no problems with working as a team.

“Coach Alberici always says there's not an I in team,” Klink said. “There's no I in the words town board either.”