VOORHEESVILLE — At $3.19 million, Voorheesville’s adopted village budget for 2025-26 is up 10.99 percent over this year’s adopted spending plan. 

The village property tax rate is set to increase 1.43 percent next year, from about $1.36 per $1,000 of assessed value this year to approximately $1.38 per $1,000 next year.

The total taxable value of all properties in the village is about $246 million,  up from $243 million this time last year, while the tax haul from the properties is expected to be about $340,500, a 2.68 percent increase. 

General budget appropriations, which are funded by $1.26 million in county sales tax dollars, are up about 16.6 percent, going from $1.94 million to $2.26 million 

The village is using nearly $250,000 in reserves to bridge the gap, which is a significant figure without the added context that $50,000 was previously set aside as part of the village’s purchase of the former Phillips Hardware at 18 South Main Street, and another $150,000 of fund balance is being moved from one line item to another, specifically fund reserves: $100,000 for an emergency vehicle and $50,000 for park improvements.

The village completed its $170,000 purchase of the former Phillips Hardware in January; the shop closed in November 2020, after 27 years in business.

The purchase is a textbook example of implementing recommendations made in the village’s 2018 comprehensive plan. In order to attract businesses and their customers to the village center, Voorheesville had to find parking spaces. 

To do so, it implemented “recommendations to create shared parking lots for Main Street businesses and apartments,” according to the comprehensive plan, by negotiating with “business property owners for shared public parking spaces — either through purchase by the Village, or public-private partnerships.”

The village got the chance to move from theory to practice last year with the opening of two South Main Street restaurants, which needed 83 parking spaces to comply with village code, but were approved with fewer than 40 spots. The purchase of the former Phillips Hardware will add 40 public spaces to the village. 

Mayor Rick Straut previously told The Enterprise that Voorheesville was given the first shot to purchase the property before it was put on the market. “We decided we really need this to save parking,” said Straut, adding that it was important for the village because “we had a parking deficit.”

The building at 18 South Main Street had been home to W.W. Crannell Lumber for nearly a century prior to Phillips’ purchase of the property in 1993, for $175,000, making the village’s acquisition of the property some two decades later look like a steal. The property, with an assessed value of about $206,000, has a full market value of about $294,000.

The building also has local historic value: It was once the home of Voorheesville’s first president, which is what they called Mayor Frank Bloomingdale in 1899, when the village incorporated.

As for the village’s other plans for the property, Straut previously said, “We will spend some time to figure out what that might be. We’ve got to further assess the building. I mean, it’s in pretty rough shape.” The village has already had to spend a few thousand dollars remediating the basement. “So, we’ve got to determine what we’re going to do with the building and what else we might do there,” Straut said.

Spending

Summary line spending is fairly split between large year-over-year increases and minimal ones:

— Total general government spending is increasing by about 32 percent, to $477,568, a figure that includes $50,000 of assigned unappropriated fund balance toward the purchase of 18 South Main and $15,000 for information-technology services, which was zero last year;

— Spending on employee benefits is increasing 12.44 percent, to $315,095;

— The total culture-and-recreation budget category is increasing 8.71 percent, to $56,092;

— Total transportation spending is up 2.83 percent, to $666,774;

— Total public safety and health is set to increase 2.03 percent, to $224,431; and

— Total home-and-community resources spending is decreasing 1.07 percent, to $274,295;

Some line items pushing up next year’s spending plan include:

— The specific “Clerk-Deputy” line item is increasing by 59.70 percent, from $48,800 to $77,934, which is due in part to 2025-26 being Clerk Treasurer Dan Wasserbach’s first full year on the job. He was hired at an annual salary of $77,000 in September 2024;

— Payments into the state retirement system are increasing 17.98 percent, from $58,400 to $68,900;

— Street administration and maintenance salaries, with the former set to increase 23.16 percent, from $49,084 to $60,454, while the latter is up 14.37 percent, from $161,600 to $184,820;

— The contract for fire services is going up 17.20 percent, from $82,000 to $96,100; and 

— Medical and dental costs are set to increase by 11.01 percent, from $116,000 to $128,770.

Income

Absent counting hundreds of thousands of dollars being moved from one side of the ledger to other as revenue, the village’s largest income sources next year are expected to be:

— County sales tax: Increasing by 4.96 percent, from $1,200,000 to $1,259,508;

— Property taxes: Up about 2.7 percent to $340,500;

— Maintenance of streets paving/CHIPs [Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program]: Increasing by 24.65 percent, from $124,350 to $155,000;

— Franchises fees: A decrease of 9.38 percent, from $64,000 to $58,000;

— Utility receipt taxes: Increasing by 18.52 percent, from $27,000 to $32,000; and

— The mortgage-recording tax: Decreasing by 6.06 percent, from $33,000 to $31,000.

The proposed water budget totals about $606,500, with revenues expected to cover all costs. Estimating expenditures and receivables of about $326,8000, the village expects sewer rents to cover next year’s appropriation.

The pay of Voorheesville’s elected officials are set to go up a bit next year, with Straut’s salary slated to increase from about $16,500 to $17,000, while the trustees’ individual per annum would go from about $7,250 to $7,500.