Tom Williams, town of Cortlandville supervisor. (Photo via Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Cortlandville residents voiced concerns on Wednesday about the town’s move to allow the budgeting team to go above the state’s recommended 2% property tax cap.
The Cortlandville town board is set to discuss the town’s
At the public comment section of the town board meeting on Wednesday (Nov. 8), Pamela Jenkins urged the board to axe a local law that allowed the town to override the state’s recommendations to keep property tax increases below 2%.
“At one of the recent town board meetings, the town board told residents the town did not need to override the (levy cap),” Jenkins said.
Supervisor Tom Williams said at an Oct. 4 meeting that most municipalities pass a similar law in case they have to go over as they are finalizing their budget.
“We do it in case we get to the point where we have to go over the cap,” he said. “We are not going to go over the cap this year.”
The budget process, he said, started in June.
“At that point, we reached out to all the department heads and asked them for proposed budgets from them concerning their department and things that they may need in the upcoming year,” Williams said. “We reviewed last year's budget, which is a review line by line. dozens of pages, hundreds of lines. We talked with department heads, some more than others.”
Williams assured residents then the town would not go over the 2% tax cap.
“We're not going to get there,” he said.
Williams said Wednesday he will address spending concerns and hear more public comments at the town board meeting on Nov. 15.
Jenkins’ concern is that there is little information as to what the town board’s plan would be regarding overriding the cap.
Proposed numbers from October suggest the tax rate per $1,000 in assessed property value will go up from $3.60 to $3.61 this upcoming year if the estimates hold, Williams said in October. The town will levy $3,471,375 in taxes, compared to $3,375,050 last year, if estimates are finalized.
