TOWN OF MANLIUS – On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the Manlius Town Board passed a 2025 budget that will raise property taxes for Manlius homeowners by a significant percentage.
In the two weeks since the public hearing on the spending plan, the town made several adjustments to the plan in an effort to drive the projected tax levy increase down. Still, the tax levy for the General Fund, which is supported by all the property owners in town, will increase by more than 23 percent to $11.17 million.
The General Fund includes the town’s police department as well as most town hall services. A new bargaining agreement with the police department is the primary driver of the increase. Next year, salaries and overtime pay for police officers will increase by just over a million dollars to $5.23 million.
As part of a pay equity program, the town has also increased the salaries of town hall employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements.
“The average homeowner is going to look at this and say, ‘what am I getting for this?’” Manlius resident Craig Dudczak told the board before the vote, noting that the increased cost is simply to maintain the status quo, not provide any additional services. “It’s an amount that just seems overwhelming for a one-year increase.”
Supervisor John Deer said that labor shortages throughout the area make it difficult for all municipalities to find and retain police officers and other personnel, suggesting that by offering more competitive wages, Manlius is a more attractive place to work.
In an effort to combat increased costs related to that challenge, he said the town would embark on “an analysis of the police departments in the area as well as around the state to understand if we [have] a more expensive police department per capita and to understand where other departments aren’t spending that amount of money and try to learn something about that.”
The budget for the highway department is split into two parts to recognize the services that are utilized by all residents versus those that aren’t utilized by residents of the three villages. The tax levy for the town-wide portion is reduced slightly from 2024 levels primarily because of an appropriation of $400,000 from the fund balance in that budget.
The tax levy for part-town highway budget, which excludes village residents, grew by about 11.6 percent.
“We are not unlike every other town and village and other level of government in facing these kinds of increases,” said Councilor Mike Nesci “We’re trying to maintain services at the level that we currently provide them … and the cost didn’t stay the same.”