Voorheesville residents can expect to see their taxes increase after officials adopted a budget that increases the property tax levy by 2.6 percent, within the village’s tax cap limit.
The Voorheesville Board of Trustees on Tuesday, April 23, unanimously adopted a $2.12 million 2013-14 budget, which increases spending around $140,000, or 7 percent. The village will raise more than $275,000 from taxes, and increase of around $7,000. The general fund (expenses outside of water and sewer districts) totals almost $1.47 million, which is an 8 percent increase from this year.
The tax rate is increasing to $1.195 per $1,000 of assessed property value. Voorheesville has around $230.3 million of assessed taxable property.
“The last few years, every budget is a challenge. A 2 percent tax cap for the Village of Voorheesville equates to about $8,000 in increased revenue,” Mayor Robert Conway said. “By being very conservative and diligent with our budget we have been able to stay within the tax cap and still provide the services that residents have come to expect.”
A large portion of the village’s budgeted revenue hinges on sales tax distributed by the county, Conway said, with $820,000 included in the adopted budget. Sales tax revenue in the village has steadily increased, with around $831,000 received in 2011 and $864,000 in 2012.
Board members reduced proposed across-the-board salary increases from 3 percent to 2 percent. Conway’s salary will remain flat. Conway said the board made adjustments to accommodate raises and the board was “comfortable” with offering a 2 percent increase.
“We have been careful in our budgeting and the village runs well, it runs efficiently, and the reason it does is because of the dedication of our employees. We certainly want to do whatever we can to reward them for that hard work,” Conway said. “It was with difficulty that we reduced the originally proposed raise from 3 to 2 percent, but we just felt that we had to make some adjustments in the budget.”
General fund balance allocation is increasing by around $65,000, with the added expenditures aimed at addressing drainage issues on Pleasant Street. Almost $115,000 is scheduled to be used from general fund reserves in the 2013-14 budget.
One side of Pleasant Street is higher than the other, Conway said, and storms over the last few years have caused water damage to homes on the lower side. A couple of years ago, the village paved the street in hopes of fixing the problem. The mayor said the original drainage was “under engineered,” and the proposed project should fix the drainage.
“The piping underneath the road needs to be replaced and there are catch basins that need to be enlarged,” Conway said.
Village officials have started putting together bid documents for the project with an aim to complete it this construction season.
