MASSENA - The Business Development Corporation will operate on a leaner budget next year.

The BDC’s Board of Directors voted 5-0, with Paul Rufa and David LaClair absent from this week’s meeting, to adopt a $120,000 2013 spending plan, $10,000 less than 2012. The cuts include $3,000 less in grant writing feesand $7,500 less in trade conference registrations and travel, lodging and food at such events.

The budget also cuts $2,500 from dues, and implicitly ends the BDC’s role in the Mayor’s Automotive Coalition next year, according to board President Daniel S. Pease.

MAC Membership has provided a voice for Massena in Washington as the community has transitioned following the closure of the General Motors Powertrain plant in 2009, former Executive Director Jason A. Clark previously said. But next year’s budget will not permit such expenses, Mr. Pease said.

“There’s just not money to go to Washington for three or four days or a trade show in Houston,” Mr. Pease said. “As nice as it is to have a voice in Washington on that committee, by considering this type of reduction we’re basically saying no more MAC.”

Mr. Clark said the Northern Corridor Transportation Group, the entity which has spearheaded the Interstate 98 marketing effort, may instead fund a MAC membership. He is chairman of that group.

The BDC still has $6,000 alotted for grant writing and $6,500 budgeted for trade conference registration, travel and food and lodging in 2013. Over half of the BDC’s costs are for the executive director, whose salary is $52,500, and the administrative assistant, who is scheduled to be paid $13,000 in 2013.

Board member Larry Ralston proposed the 2013 spending plan, and others agreed.

“This is bare bones, bare bare bones,” member Ronald Bacon said. “I’m not sure we can shift it or cut it anymore.”

“It would be nice if there were other monies floating around,” Mr. Ralston said. “Tough decisions are going to have to be made.”

Mr. Pease said the reduced spending plan was a part of the BDC’s “continuing conversation with the town and the village” on the agency’s future.

The Massena Town Council has doubled its BDC contribution from $30,000 in 2012 to $60,000 in 2013 and 2014. The village’s Board of Trustees may take the same vote at their meeting on Tuesday.

The BDC wanted assurances of adequate funding from the village and the town before it hired Mr. Clark’s replacement, Mr. Pease said. The agency had been spending down its reserves after the village and town cut their contributions in recent years and would have run out of them by 2014 if current spending and revenue patterns had continued.

The BDC’s budget trimming is part of the larger effort to work with the village and town moving forward, Mr. Pease said.

Mr. Pease said he expected the BDC to solicit for resumes to replace Mr. Clark, whose last day was Thursday, soon.

“The actual decision of whether to hire won’t be for a month or two down the road,” he said.

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