GUILDERLAND —At $45.9 million, Guilderland’s first pass at a budget for 2025 is up 7.3 percent from this year’s adopted spending plan.

“So the bottom line is the tax levy is increasing by 2.68 percent, which is under the tax cap by $198,” Supervisor Peter Barber said during the town board’s Oct. 1 meeting. “The town taxes still only count for roughly 12 percent of a total property tax.” 

Barber said there had been a “decline in the town's general tax by 4.62 percent, and also all other tax levies also decreased. The only reason why there’s even a tax increase is because of sewer operations and maintenance.”

The supervisor said the town had been using rainy-day funds to plug the shortfall, but “we want to stop doing that; we need to restore the sewer [fund] to [self-sufficiency]; it’s  unbalanced.”

To cover the budget gap while continuing to fund operation and maintenance of the town’s wastewater infrastructure, Barber said taxes would increase by 12 percent next year, from about $85.6 per $1,000 of assessed value to $95.6 per $1,ooo. Though the cost of running the systems is largely borne by the residents receiving the services, the town includes as part of its total annual spending plan Guilderland’s water and sewer budgets, which total about $10.2 million. 

The taxes paid by all property owners within Guilderland’s municipal boundary are expected to stay flat for 2025, with the general town-wide tax rate dropping slightly from 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to 53 cents per $1,000. The rate paid for the town roads outside the village of Altamont is set to increase from 85 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to 82 cents per $1,000.

Guilderland property owners, depending on where their land is located, can often have four or five other line items on their annual town bill, taxes associated with living in one or more Guilderland’s benefit districts like those for fire, ambulance, emergency medical services, water, light, and sewer.

Other than the nearly $14 million from the property tax levy, Guilderland’s largest sources of revenue for next year include: 

— About $13.7 million in sales tax from Albany County;

— EMS fees of $2.8 million

— About $2 million from New York state, about $1.1 million of which comes from mortgage-recording taxes and about $800,000 from the CHIPS, the state’s Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program; and 

—$1 million from the federal government for section 8 housing.

New costs

On Oct. 1, Barber sought to hit a few highlights during his quick introduction of next year’s tentative spending plan. 

“We’re adding three new employees in the highway department,” Barber said because the town was transferring sidewalk responsibilities, “both in terms of plowing them in wintertime, but also constructing them,” from the parks department to the highway department. 

While there are other transportation budget-line items scattered throughout the spreadsheet of next year’s tentative spending, the largest is the highway department, for which the town has set aside $3.96 million in 2025, up from $3.65 million this year.

The town would also be hiring additional emergency-service workers, Barber said, “because the need is there, [EMS] is getting more and more calls, and the volume of calls is just, it’s becoming very difficult without adding more people.”

The town’s public-health budget for 2025 of nearly $4.2 million is down quite a bit from this year’s $4.6 million — which is a slightly misleading figure because also included in this year’s public health budget was about $830,000 for emergency dispatching, a budget-line item that next year appears in the public-safety budget. 

The supervisor said there are also hires to be made at the town’s central garage and police department, which is set to see its budget go from $5.35 million this year to $5.9 million next year, a 10.3 percent increase. 

There are a “couple things that are driving the budget” for next year, really every year, Barber said, retirement and healthcare costs, which for next year are set to increase by 15 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively. 

Costs associated with current and former employee benefits — meaning their health insurance, monthly pension payouts, and Social Security, among other budget items  —  are set to increase from about $8.5 million this year to $9.25 million in 2025.

The salaries for the town’s full-time elected officials are increasing next year, from about $133,000 to $137,000 for the supervisor; about $84,700 to $86,200 for the town clerk; and from $110,250 to $113,600 for the highway superintendent.

In part-time posts, the salaries of the town’s three judges would each increase from about $60,200 to about $62,000, while salaries for each of the four town board members would increase from $28,500 to about $29,300.