NEW SCOTLAND — At $9.22 million, New Scotland’s tentative budget for next year is up 6.5 percent over this year’s adopted spending plan.

For 2023, the town is proposing a tax rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value for all New Scotland property owners — including those who live in the village of Voorheesville — the same as this year. 

Property owners escaped a fifth straight year of incremental tax increases in 2022 when the town board elected to cut property taxes this year after initially proposing a rate hike in early October 2021. 

Board members approved this year’s tax cut in part because of the town’s better-than-expected financial situation at the end of 2021, which was attributed to:

— An unanticipated bump in sales-tax revenue from the county (there were also accusations the board was playing politics with the budget process so close to last year’s town board election);

— Cost-saving measures implemented by the town board partway through 2020; and

— Worker retirements. 

To pay for the budget increase in 2023 without the corresponding tax bump, the town will tap its largest total fund-balance reserve — $5.3 million —  for the most money — $590,000 — since at least 2006 (which are the available budgets on the town’s website). 

This year’s budget is why New Scotland sought to build up its fund balance all these years, Supervisor Douglas LaGrange told The Enterprise, “This budget is truly a rainy-day [budget]. I mean, if there’s any time when we’re, when everybody, the residents, and everybody are having struggles — that’s [why] we started with a 5 percent COLA [cost-of-living adjustment]. So it was built in, and everybody knew where we stood … and then a zero tax increase.”

The proposed 2023 town budget has a 5-percent cost-of-living pay increase for employees, which is typically one of the last things decided on by board members.

“This year, I’m starting at a 5 percent [increase],” LaGrange said of the cost-of-living pay increase. “But they’re projecting Social Security at an … 8.7 [percent increase]. So, you know, it’s tough. I mean, there’s more to it than just the straight-up Social Security and what we should do with COLAs. But that’s kind of how things have gone.”

The salaries for the town’s full-time elected officials are increasing in 2023, from about $67,500 to $70,800 for supervisor; about $62,500 to $65,700 for town clerk; and approximately $79,400 to $83,4000 for highway superintendent.

In part-time posts, the town’s two judges’ salaries would each increase from about $30,200 to $31,700, while each of the four town board members would earn about $11,000, a $500 increase over this year.

Finances

It’s largely good news for the town’s finances and funds heading into next year.

This time last year, the town estimated draining about $99,000 from the B Fund’s rainy-day account, which became $109,000 at the time of adoption. The B Fund is largely funded by county sale-tax revenue, and its appropriations largely cover the highway operations. New Scotland now anticipates the B Fund will end this year with a nearly $695,000 surplus.

For 2023, the town estimates it will use about $371,000 of its B Fund reserve.

For its A Fund reserve, the town’s 2022 adopted budget included a $147,850    drawdown; it now estimates that the town will instead add about $38,000 to the reserve this year. For next year, the town will use almost $197,000 of its A Fund reserve. 

New Scotland expects its largest revenue generator next year to be its total tax levy — a number that includes monies from benefit-districts like fire and water  — which would yield $3.2 million, of which about $1.58 million comes from the town-wide property tax.

For 2022, the town expected $2.1 million in sales-tax revenue from the county; it now anticipates $2.45 million. For next year, the town expects $2.1 million in sales tax from Albany County. The county distributes monies based on the population of a municipality.

New Scotland tends to be conservative in its sales-tax estimates; for example, this time last year, New Scotland estimated it would end 2021 with $2.24 million in county sales tax — the actual number was nearly $2.5 million, a number the town had not anticipated in October 2020 when it tentatively estimated about $1.97 million in tax revenue for 2021 but ultimately adopted a budget expecting $2 million in sales tax. 

Albany County’s sales-tax revenue was up 11.6 percent over the same time period in 2021, from $199.3 million in 2021 to $225.5 million in 2022.

Similarly, the town’s share of the mortgage-recording tax continues to do well. In Albany County, residents pay a recording tax of $1.25 per $100 of mortgage. The local municipality receives 25 cents, as does the county, in addition to the Capital District Transportation Authority, and 50 cents is returned to the state, which in turn sends some of that money back to the county while keeping some to help fund the Mortgage Insurance Agency.

New Scotland took in $434,000 in mortgage-recording-tax revenue for 2021, about 46-percent more than anticipated when it adopted its budget. 

The town received about $206,000 in mortgage taxes for the first six months of 2022 — it had planned on $265,000 for all of 2022; it now anticipates $370,000 in 2022. For 2023, the town estimates $255,000 in mortgage taxes.

Increases 

The total salaries the town pays will go from about $1.89 million this year to $1.99 million, a 5.4 percent increase 

In addition to the benefit districts seeing increases, the town’s overall budget for its contracted refuse-and-garbage services is set to increase almost 8 percent in 2023 after dropping by almost 7 percent in this year. 

The savings came last year when the town’s waste-hauler, Robert Wright Disposal, did away with the annual $55,000 fee New Scotland was charged to recycle residents’ discarded items. 

LaGrange said the town’s contract for refuse-and-garbage services, which is expected to increase to $534,000 next year from about $494,600 this year, can be attributed to an increase in the Consumer Price Index and “a lot” of houses being added to Wright’s pick-up services.

The highway budget is up about 6.5 percent, from $2.15 million this year to $2.3 million next year. The highway fund outside the village total general repairs line shows an increase of $47,000.

LaGrange noted the budget line for personal services  — one of the two that make up the total general repairs line — this year is expected to come in at approximately $302,000, when close to $350,000 was budgeted; the total line is expected to come in at $455,000, when about $502,500 was budgeted. 

The 2023 highway fund outside the village total general repairs line is about $549,600. LaGrange said Highway Superintendent Ken Guyer probably thought it important to bump the number up a bit. “You know, again, we’re talking a budget,” LaGrange said, “We’re not talking any assurances in one way or the other.” LaGrange also thought fuel was included in the budget line, but wasn’t certain. 

The other increase is the permanent improvement line, which is set to go up by 15 percent, from about $441,000 to approximately $508,000. LaGrange said there was carried-over CHIPs (state Consolidated Highway Improvement Program) money for a 10-wheeler truck that accounted for the increase.