Voorheesville is proposing a $2.6 million budget for 2019-20.

VOORHEESVILLE — The village’s proposed $2.64 million budget for next year is down significantly from this year’s budget of $3.23 million. The roughly $300,000 garnered from property taxes is below the state-set levy limit.

This year’s budget included the one-time cost of a $747,000 sidewalk project of which the village was responsible for $149,000 and the state paid $598,000.

Although the village was responsible for just $149,000 of the $747,000 price tag, the project’s entire cost was included in this year’s $3.23 million budget, giving it the appearance that the 2018-19 budget was significantly more than the one proposed for 2019-20.

Not including the money from the state, the proposed budget for next year is up only slightly from this year, which is because 2019-20 proposed budget includes an additional $195,000 for a water-related project that in effect takes the place of the $149,000 the village paid for sidewalks.

A public hearing for the proposed 2019-20 budget is set for April 1; the board of trustees will vote on its adoption at its April 23 village meeting.

The entire village has an assessed value of $258 million of which about $235 million is taxable.

The proposed tax rate for village residents is $1.29 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is up from this year’s $1.26 per $1,000 of assessed value. In addition, village residents also pay into New Scotland’s townwide general and highway funds at $1.45 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The appropriations in the proposed general budget total about $1.66 million.

About $605,000 is allocated for transportation, which includes among other appropriations the salaries of public works department workers and a one-time cost of $70,000 for the village’s share of a packer truck for brush pick-up — the costs are split with the town of New Scotland; and about $263,000 is for general government support, which includes the salaries of the village board, mayor, and clerk-treasurer.

About $240,000 is for home and community, which includes fees paid to the Rapp Road landfill and the village’s contract for recycling pick up; about $226,000 is for employee benefits; about $135,000 is for public safety and health; about $90,000 is to service the village’s debt; and about $45,000 is for culture and recreation.

The village is expecting about $1.67 million in revenues from these sources:

— $950,000 in sales tax, which is distributed by the county based on population;

— $302,000 from property taxes;

— $67,000 in franchise fees;

— $54,500 in highway aid;

— $44,000 from property rentals;

— $30,000 from mortgage taxes; and

— $29,000 from taxing utility providers.

About $170,000 would be appropriated from fund balances: $70,000 from a vehicle-reserve fund for the packer truck for brush pick-up; and $100,000 from the general fund for the sidewalk project, a streetlight project, and to balance the budget. The reserve balance of the general fund is about $1.36 million.

The proposed water budget totals about $683,000, which includes an additional $195,000 that was not in last year’s budget and is for engineering fees and preliminary work to find a new water source or to improve the village’s existing sources.

The village estimates it will receive about $683,000 in revenues; $500,000 in metered water sales, $160,000 is appropriated from the water fund balance (which has a reserve of about $670,000), and $20,000 in interest and penalties from water rent.

In 2017, the village increased the minimum amount that customers have to pay annually for water from $150 to $200 and reduced the minimum number of gallons a customer receives from 25,000 to 20,000; the combined actions were a move to fund future repairs.

The village has two sewer districts.

The first district — the Salem Hills Sewer District, which includes Maple Avenue, Mountainview Street, and Quail Run — has a proposed budget of about $347,000; with an estimated $237,000 in revenue, the village expects to use about $110,000 from the sewer fund balance.

In the second sewer district — along Pleasant Street — appropriations and revenues are expected to be equal — $7,404.

The reserve fund balance for the sewer districts is about $390,000.

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. 

  • 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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