32. full time work, full time pay
Set the Mayor’s salary at the same rate as the Town Supervisor’s. Both are 24-7 jobs, with equivalent duties and re-sponsibilities. Running for Mayor should not be left only to the wealthy or retired, and hiring a Village Manager would cost over $100,000, or nearly a ten percent tax hike.
100 Ideas for New Paltz 
you are neither wealthy or retired and you ran for mayor. This goal seems to be your own pipe dream of running for mayor again and making a lot of money on the job!!! Drop the self serving ideas Jason and you will be better off!
Frank –
While I was neither retired nor wealthy, I was also the first person in a generation or two that served as Mayor who didn’t fall into one of those categories, and the person who succeeded me is retired. The point is simply that since the job is full time and then some, the community has to make sure that those who are elected are able to pay the bills. This means either hiring someone else to do the lion’s share of the Mayor’s job — a Village Manager — or paying the Mayor a full time salary.
Village Managers in the villages closest to New Paltz — Ellenville and Walden — each pay their Village Managers in the neighborhood of $100,000 a year (when you add in salary, benefits, providing a car, etc.) Since that would mean close to a 10% tax hike for Village residents, I don’t think that’s a viable option.
$40,000 is about what a first year teacher makes right out of college in the New Paltz School District. I don’t feel that this is an excessive amount of money for someone elected to be the CEO of a $6 million organization with 35 employees.
It’s a matter of practicality — the status quo keeps 95% of Village residents from serving as Mayor (who would give up their job for four years to not make enough to pay their bills and work 60 hours a week?), the Village Manager is too expensive, so the logical solution to the problem is paying the Mayor the same salary a rookie teacher or the Town Supervisor makes.
On a side note, I was very surprised at how many positive comments were given at the public hearing on this issue. Over 80% of the comments were in favor of a full-time salary. The other 20% were advocating for another solution (ither dissolving the Village or hiring a Manager). Almost no one thinks that the current setup is working for the Village.
Jason
Wow. You didn’t even get 40,00????
Oops, I mean 40,000. It’s not like that is an exorbitant salary. It barely covers bills when rent is at least 900 or so if you live alone.
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