Mayor's Column
3/14/2025
Mayor’s Corner by Greg “Porp” Rogers
On March 4th the Village Board, with Clerk-Treasurer Eileen Carmel, Clerk Sharon Jeary, Laura Landers, CPA, and our department heads, met to collaborate and put forth our 2025-2026 budget.
The board is by no means beating their chest that we have lowered the tax rate since our spending is up about 4.5%. While over the past 7 years we’ve had relatively flat tax increases and balanced the budget through using reserves, our costs have gone up significantly. The new assessment has now added a new multiplying factor for each household. The same attention went into the budget as before and purchases were scrutinized. Much of our increase has come from utilities, wages and benefits. Our team is constantly exploring options to save money. The board has balanced the budget and will lower the tax rate to $7.99 per thousand. One more time, we realize this is still an increase!!!
We have the County election coming up in November, and it has been mentioned that communication between our Legislator and the Village Board has been severed. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Communication between the Village, Town, School, and our County Legislator has never been stronger.
With a break in the weather, our crews are out patching potholes, and the state has done some work on Routes 5 & 19, but there’s more to do.
On Tuesday April 7th at 7:00 pm at Village Hall we will have our annual organizational meeting and proposed budget public hearing. All are welcome to attend.
The next Comprehensive Plan meeting is April 9th at 6:00 pm at Village Hall.
“Keep calm and carry on.” Winston Churchill