By Lauren Young
Fayetteville residents will see no change in their village tax rate for the 2018-19 budget year. The board of trustees adopted its final budget on April 23 that included a village tax rate of $7.20 per every $1,000 of assessed value, the same as last year.
According to Mayor Mark Olson, “overall village spending is down $50,000, revenues are down $46,000 and approximately $208,000 of unexpended funds from this year’s budget will be barred.”
An hourly pay increase of 2.5 percent for non-union employees was adopted, with no increase in wages for elected officials. Health insurance costs dropped $8,000 after a change in insurance companies, debt service went up $56,000, ambulance revenue went down $100,000 and the fire department contract decreased by $50,000.
Performing arts programs and the DPW lease program are all fully funded under the budget.
“This a budget of what we need, not what we want. And we’ll continue to do that until we get in better shape,” said Mayor Mark Olson.
“I want to thank the trustees, the department heads, the residents for their input, but mostly I’d like to thank our volunteers on our commissions and boards that make Fayetteville special, along with our village employees,” said Olson. “It truly takes a lot of people to put this together, and it takes a lot of people to work and manage it, so I want to thank those people.”
A motion to adopt the budget was made and seconded by trustees Dennis Duggleby and Mike Small, while trustee Dan Kinsella abstained.
“I really feel hesitant to vote for a budget that I think should have a little increase,” said Kinsella regarding the unchanging tax rate. “Because three years from now, I don’t want to have to raise the budget .50 or .60 cents, so .07 cents at a time doesn’t make a difference. So, I’m a little reluctant to vote yes on it.”
“I agree with Mark — this is a budget of what we need and not what we want,” said Duggleby. “I think if we’re asking for what we need, and not what we want, we need a certain amount of revenue to pay for the expenses we have, so we don’t necessarily need to raise that [tax rate].”
The next Fayetteville Village Board of Trustees meeting will be held May 14 at 6 p.m.
Additionally, a joint meeting between the board of trustees and the planning board will be held at 6 p.m. on May 21 to discuss the SEQR — State Environmental Quality Review Act — review of the proposed N. Burdick St. development.
This project, being developed by Mark Shattuck, calls for a 6,000-sqaure foot, one-story plaza in the Village of Fayetteville, the last parcel on North Burdick Street within village limits.
Though it will be an open meeting, it will not be a public hearing.
