Superintendent Marie Wiles, in answering questions from the board and the public about her draft budget on March 15, said that the nearly 5-percent spending increase and the nearly 3-percent tax increase “are the highest they've been in my time here” as she stressed the importance of “balance” in not overburdening taxpayers.

“This is by no means … our budget,” Altamont Mayor Kerry Dineen said during a recent budget workshop. “This is a very preliminary draft.”

Currently, the Voorheesville Central School District is not projecting a budget deficit in 2022-23, unusual in a first-draft spending proposal. 

Marie Wiles, Ph.D., Superintendent Guilderland Central School District

The biggest factor in the revenue jump is the state’s commitment to make Foundation Aid to schools whole. “It looks like that three-year phase-in, at least from the governor’s perspective, is going to happen, so that’s tremendous news for our school district and school districts throughout the state,” Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for business, Neil Sanders, said on Tuesday.

The Helderberg Lake Community Association is hoping to fund necessary dam repairs with money borrowed from the town of Berne, which would need to create a special tax district to recoup those funds over 30 years, at a rate of $5.35 per $1,000 of assessed home value. 

The biggest factor in the revenue jump is the state’s commitment to make Foundation Aid to schools whole. That brought Guilderland an additional $1.5 million this year and will bring in $2.5 million next year.

Peter Drao, Charissa Mayer, New Scotland

Although the Hilltowns, like virtually all municipalities in the United States, received a substantial amount of money from the federal government’s COVID-19 relief program, the budgets for Knox, Westerlo, and Rensselaerville for 2022 are largely similar to those made in less eventful years.

The state’s Department of Taxation and Finance encourages eligible taxpayers to register for a free virtual tax-filing assistance session.