By Jason Klaiber

Staff Writer

Town property taxes in the town of Manlius will drop next year to their lowest level since 2012 following the town board’s adoption of its final 2020 budget at its Nov. 20 meeting.

The town board presented its preliminary budget on Oct. 23 and had worked until early last week with department heads, discussing such topics as sustainability and personnel matters to arrive at a final version for consideration.

During his presentation at the Wednesday night meeting, Town Councilor Nick Marzola said the board is focused on fiscal sustainability and the efficient execution of town business.

Spending in the town’s General “A” fund, which covers full-town operations like police, recreation and the town’s court, will increase about $354,000 for 2020 from last year’s $9,899,156 figure.

The appropriations for the town’s General “B” fund, which pertains to the part-town operations of planning and development – which are only applied outside the villages – are down almost $9,000 from $341,145 for 2020.

The town is planning a $39,000 increase in the cost of snow removal and a slight decrease in planned spending for road repairs.

The full town appropriations are up about $384,000 to $15,353,867, a difference of 2.56%, but the increase in spending is more than offset by growth in the overall town assessment, which is up 3.39%.

The 2020 full town tax rate is down 9.5 cents from $4.83 to $4.73, a decrease of 1.97% from 2019. For the owner of a home assessed at $200,000, that equates to a savings of about $19.

According to Marzola, this marks the town’s lowest tax rate since 2012.

“I think that’s absolutely outstanding,” Marzola said.

Marzola ended by thanking the other elected officials as well as the town’s police chief and department heads for their work throughout the budget process.

The town board also approved the Fayetteville, Minoa and Manlius village fire contracts during the Nov. 20 meeting and opened a public hearing on restrictions regarding signage, such as real estate signs, and inflatables during which no attendees spoke.