Public hearing set for April 14

By Russ Tarby

Contributing writer

On April 4, the Liverpool Village Board of Trustees approved a proposed 2016-17 village budget for $2,362,406, calling for a decrease of $16,000 in spending over this year’s budget.

If the proposed spending plan is passed, the village tax rate will remain flat, at $12.45 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. For example, a home assessed at $100,000 will receive a village tax bill of $1,245.

The annual sewer-fund assessment will remain $130.

When the current operating budget was passed last year totaling $2,378,894, village taxes went up by 1.64 percent, but the annual sewer-fund assessment was reduced from $150 to $130 per year.

Village Clerk Mary Ellen Sims outlined the proposed 2016-17 spending plan at a special meeting of the trustees at noon on April 4.

“It’s a very tight budget,” Sims said. Three major capital purchases are planned, including a new police cruiser, a new dump box for a DPW dump truck and a new garbage truck which will be leased-to-own.

Assessed values in the village have risen somewhat, Sims said, to $124,700,299. She recommended that the trustees apply $16,000 from the village’s current fund balance of $569,000 to the new budget, in order to keep the tax rate flat.

“We want to keep the rate the same,” said Mayor Gary White.

A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at the Village Hall, 310 Sycamore St.