Apr. 21—MASSENA — Village trustees have adopted a budget that lowers the tax levy slightly from the original proposal. But, one trustee warned board members that the levy might be more than the property tax cap when they work on the next spending plan.
Mayor Gregory M. Paquin's 2024-25 budget proposal originally carried a tax levy increase of 3.52%, which was $200 below the property tax cap, prior to meetings with department heads to discuss their budget needs.
Treasurer Kevin M. Felt said that, with one change following those meetings, the tax levy hike had now been decreased to 3.48%.
"That remains below our tax cap," Paquin said.
"The tax cap is $6,449,709. You're currently at $6,447,009 with the assumption that the reduction, you've asked to reduce the levy, not adjust your appropriated fund balance," Felt said.
The last time trustees authorized no tax increase was in the 2016-17 budget. Since then, there have been increases of 1.25%, 2.24%, 1.77%, 1.69%, 1%, 1.63% and 2.52%.
The tax rate under Paquin's original proposal would have increased 2.6%, to $17.470138 per $1,000 of assessed value. With the adopted budget, that dropped to $17.463366 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Department requests had come in at $12,340,443, which Paquin whittled down to $12,084,493 in his budget proposal. The projected fund balance sits at $3,072,086, and Paquin proposed using $494,292 to balance the budget, leaving a fund balance of $2,577,794.
"Make no mistake, that's not sustainable. That's not something that we can do every year, but in times when you can afford it. We can help to keep the tax rate down, yes. But, again, it's not something that's sustainable," he said during his initial budget presentation.
Trustee Kenneth J. McGowan warned that, while they were under the tax cap this time, that might not be the case in the next budget.
"I think we should be honest to the public and let them know. This year we made it, but next year chances are it's going to be a hefty count. I could be wrong," he said.
He said they were taking some money from the Massena Joint Recreation Department's fund balance to help balance the spending plan, and the money would need to come from somewhere next year. In addition, he said, the Massena Police Department was looking to add another officer to back fill one position that's currently serving as school resource officer.
"I know the school says they're giving us all the money, but if we do the numbers, it's really not," McGowan said. "I believe we need an SRO, but we really need to tell the public, 'Wait a minute, a year from now it might be different' and not to be shocked."