PORT HENRY: The new Port Henry village budget has some good news for taxpayers: Taxes are headed downward. The amount to be raised by taxes in the tentative 2016-17 village budget is a 1.49 percent reduction over the current spending plan, decreasing from $577,394 in 2015-16 to $568,766. That translates to a 4.7-cent drop in the tax rate, from $11.78 per $1,000 of assessed value to $11.73.
The adjusted state tax cap for the village is about a 1 percent increase, village budget consultant Janelle Jurkiewicz said, and the new budget is well below that.
“We’re on the other side of that (cap),” Village Deputy Mayor Matthew Brassard said. “It’s a great budget.” The Village Board accepted the budget at a special meeting Wednesday morning, with Mayor Ernest Guerin absent. The public hearing on the budget is set for 7 p.m. Monday, April 18, in the Village Hall.
The board will meet after the hearing to make any changes to the budget and vote on passage. Total appropriations in the budget are $1.7 million, including state aid and water and sewer accounts.
Water rates are increasing by 10 percent, Jurkiewicz said at the special meeting. “(Otherwise) we’re going to have a shortfall,” she said. “This brings us back up.” However, semi-annual sewer rates are dropping by $10 and sewer system debt service by $5, so there should be an average net decrease of about $13 on combined water-sewer bills, Brassard said.
The only users with an increase will be water-sewer family-rate customers, he said, who should see a $3 rise in their semi-annual bills. The combined semi-annual water-sewer rate is now $371.65.
