Property tax rates in the village of Liverpool will remain the same as last year if the Village Board of Trustees approves a proposed $2,328,210 budget for 2013-14.
Village residents and business owners are invited to comment on the proposed budget at a public hearing set for 7:01 p.m. April 15, at the Village Hall, 310 Sycamore St. The budget will be available for review at the Village Hall starting on April 9, Sims said.
At its monthly meeting on March 18, the trustees heard a brief presentation from Village Clerk/Treasurer Mary Ellen Sims who outlined the new spending plan.
If the budget is approved as expected later this month, the tax rate for village property-owners will stand at $12.25 per $1,000 of valuation, as it was for the 2013-13 cycle.
In 2012-13, a home assessed at $100,000 received a village tax bill of $1,225. All properties in the village must also pay a $150-per unit sewer rent charge. The 2013-14 village sewer fund budget is $207,313, as compared to this year’s sewer fund budget of $253,305.
The proposed budget calls for $60,000 in sidewalk improvements but no major capital projects are planned for the coming year, Sims said. The annual budget pays for village departments of public works, police, village court, clerks, codes enforcement and the operation of the Village Hall as well as $155,853 in debt payments for general fund.
“By 2014, we will have paid off almost all our notes except for the sewer bond, which will have an outstanding balance of $1,670,000 at that time,” Sims said.
The proposed budget is $24,000 more than this year’s budget which came in at $2,282,663.
In 2010, Onondaga County significantly cut funds previously shared with the smaller governments when it changed its long-standing sales-tax agreement with towns and villages, so the village pared down its budget that year to $2,194,000.
Over the past decade, the village had received about $550,000 annually from the county’s 4 percent sales tax. Over the next 10 years Liverpool will get just $281,000 per year. That’s its share of $4 million annually which the county will distribute among its 15 villages as part of a new Village Infrastructure Program.
Because of the loss of sales-tax revenue, village taxes rose for the first time in 14 years in 2011, although the total 2011-12 budget was just $2,223,428. Village taxes went up by approximately 22 percent, but that hike was offset somewhat by a lowering of the county tax rate.
That year village employees willingly suspended contractually guaranteed salary increases, said Mayor Gary White. In the coming year, Sims anticipates raises of 2 percent going into effect.
