WESTERLO — The town plans to spend $2.3 million next year, an increase of about $225,000 over this year’s budget.

Supervisor Richard Rapp said that the increase is due to the town’s buying a new truck, allotting funds for the restoration of its museum, and spending more in insurance for employees’ benefits.

State retirement costs, he said, now total $77,000 for town employees. He added that he remembers when that figure was much lower.
Asked if any town expenses, such as fuel costs, state retirement, or medical insurance, were rising at the rate they were last year, Rapp responded, "No"Right now, fuel costs are going down, but I suspect that, in the winter, they’re going to go up."

The tax rate, he said, will be affected by the increase in the budget, but he wasn’t sure what the projected rate would be for this coming year. The current rate is $1,811.96 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Westerlo has not undergone revaluation in decades so many properties are valued at a fraction of their worth.

Rapp said that, when religious groups buy property in town, they’re tax exempt, and that something should be done. In recent years, as big tax-paying resorts in the area have closed, religious groups have bought them.
"The state’s going to have to intervene," he said, adding, "I’m not against religious groups."

Of the total $2.3 million preliminary budget, about $900,000 will be raised from taxes, with $113,000 coming from the fund balance, and about $1.3 million coming from revenues, like sales and mortgage taxes.

Highway spending is budgeted at $816,005.

Rapp said at last week’s town board meeting that the only item on the budget that went down in cost was ALS, Advanced Life Support, the paramedic fly car program.
"Every town contributing went down," he added.
The funds allotted for youth programs also decreased from $14,000 to $3,500. Rapp said this decrease was due to no longer having two programs. "We only have one now," he said.

The board is still trying to determine which residents will be paying for the town’s water district since its completion this year, Rapp said.
"We’re still trying to figure it out," he said.

Rapp said Westerlo didn’t see an increase due to the federal Help America Vote Act. Albany County has passed much of the cost of new voting machine requirements on to municipalities.
"It’s a mixed up mess," Rapp said of HAVA. "The old machines work."

Rapp added that the law will deter older people from going to the polls.
"They’re not going to vote," he said. "All the towns are complaining."

The majority of the revenue, sales tax, he said, is a fair tax because everybody pays it.

The following annual salaries were budgeted:

— $7,250 for town board member;

— $14,500 for supervisor; and

— $28,500 for the town clerk.

A budget workshop is scheduled for Oct. 17 at 7 p.m., and, Rapp said, a public hearing on the budget will be held Nov. 8 at 7:30 at town hall, after which the town board is slated to adopt a final plan.