Voorheesville preliminary budget up 2.7%, taxes up slightly

— Photo from Google Street View

The village of Voorheesville’s first pass at its 2025-26 budget comes in at 2.95 million, up about 2.7 percent from this year. 

VOORHEESVILLE — At $2.95 million, Voorheesville’s first-draft village budget for 2025-26 is up about 2.7 percent over this year’s adopted spending plan. 

The village property tax rate would increase three-quarters of 1 percent next year, from about $1.36 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to approximately $1.37 per $1,000 next year.

The entire village has an assessed value of about $266.3 million, of which about 92.5 percent is taxable, and is up from $264.5 million.

The total tax property haul is expected to be about $338,300, a 2 percent increase. 

The village breaks its spending into three buckets: general, water, and sewer.

The appropriations proposed in next year’s general budget totals about $2.01 million, up from $1.94 million this year:

— $636,000 is allocated for transportation, about 40 percent of which is public works department wages; 

— $421,500 is for general government support, which includes the salaries of the village board, mayor, and clerk-treasurer and deputy clerk, and is up about 16 percent, from $362,700 this year; 

— $273,300 is for home and community, which is down slightly and includes fees paid to the Rapp Road landfill and the village’s contract for recycling pick-up; 

— $309,400 is for employee benefits, up 10.5 percent from this year; 

— $224,400 is for public safety and health, largely fire and ambulance coverage; and

— $91,250 is to service the village’s debt, which is down slightly.

Rainy-day funds will be used to make up a $19,000 budget gap.

Mayor Rich Straut’s salary is slated to increase from about $16,450 to nearly $17,000, while trustees’ individual annual pay would go from about $7,250 to approximately $7,500.

The village’s general fund is expecting about $2.01 million in revenues from these sources:

— About $1.26 million in sales tax, which is distributed by Albany County based on population. In 2024, Voorheesville took in about $1.31 million in county tax revenue, according to the state comptroller; through three county disbursements so far this fiscal year — June 2024 to May 2025 — the village has received about $997,000; 

— $338,300 from property taxes;

— $124,350 in highway aid;

— $90,000 in utility and franchise fees;

— $59,000 from property rentals; and 

— $31,000 from mortgage taxes

The proposed $611,500 water budget is down from $624,000 this year, with revenues from the water district expected to cover all costs. The sewer spending is up from $314,000 to $326,800, as the village expects rents to cover next year’s appropriation.

More New Scotland News

  • “When they got here, the roof was on fire. They knocked it down fast. Nobody was home. So everybody’s safe and sound, just property damage,” Thomas Cascone, Voorheesville’s fire chief, told the media at the scene. 

  • If approved, next year’s budget would represent a 0.15-percent increase over this year and a nearly 6 percent increase in the property tax levy.

  • The plan will now be folded into the town’s 2018 comprehensive plan and “used as a reference tool in the development, management, and protection of New Scotland’s natural resources, and in making future land use decisions,” the resolution adopting the plan states.

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