By Kathy Savolt -
The tentative budget for the next fiscal year (starting June 1) was released last week and the Board of Trustees scheduled the required Public Hearing on the matter for March 27, 2023 at the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Highlights
· Expenses (called Appropriations in government-speak) are proposed to increase 7.6%. Salaries and benefits make up 71.4% of total expenses. Salaries are proposed to increase by 7.6% and benefits by 14.3%. It must be noted that significant salary increases were recently approved by the Board of Trustees, including a raise for the Village Manager. Therefore, these figures are probably neither “proposed” nor “tentative.”
· Revenue Other Than Property Tax is projected to increase by 21.2% with increases in sales tax collections, introduction of new fees, a new service, and increases in current fees, including the sewer rent fees SEE HERE. Here are highlights of the largest changes:
Sales Tax collection is projected to increase by $800,000 or 18.2% as spending in the County returns to pre-pandemic levels. Note that the Village’s portion of sales tax revenue is calculated by our share of spending in the County, allocated by 2020 census population figure.
The 90% increase in the Sewer Rent Fee is expected to yield $852,900. Transferring this amount from the Sewer Fund is a new source of revenue for the General Fund.
Proposed increases in Building Department fees will result in an increase of 180% to $70,000.
Field Maintenance Fees will increase 135.3% from $68,000 to $160,000.
New Boat Storage service at Harbor Island Park is projected to yield $100,000.
· Once again, the Village Manager, who is also the Budget Officer, proposes taking $600,000 from the reserve fund. The reserve fund is similar to a “rainy day” fund in our own family finances.
The total amount projected to be raised by property taxes is $27,839,843, an increase of 1.16% over the current year and under the NYS tax cap.
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