Mt. Pleasant Likely to Exceed Tax Cap in $64.8M Budget for 2025
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The Town of Mount Pleasant is likely to exceed the 2 percent tax cap as soaring health care premiums and retirement costs coupled with lingering effects of inflation and supply chain issues present budgeting challenges.
Town Board members last week adopted a $64.8 million preliminary budget while scheduling public hearings on the 2025 spending plan and to exceed the tax cap for next Tuesday, Nov. 26. That spending level includes budgets for the general and highway funds as well as all special districts.
Last week, Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said the current tax levy increase stands at 3.51 percent, about 1.5 percent over the limit. He doesn’t see any chance that the town can meet its obligations and adhering to the cap before a final budget has to be approved by the board next month.
“It’s as tight as you’re going to get it,” Fulgenzi said of the preliminary budget. “We’re not going to be going down on the budget.”
This would be the first time Mount Pleasant would exceed the tax cap since Fulgenzi took over as supervisor nearly a decade ago and just the second time since the state introduced the cap in 2011.
According to the preliminary budget, health care costs for the town are slated to rise by just over $400,000, from about $3,451,000 to $3,853,000, an increase of close to 12 percent. Meanwhile, retirement costs are projected to skyrocket by more than 16 percent for the Employee Retirement System and nearly 30 percent for the Police & Fire Retirement System.
Fulgenzi said the only potential additional employee that could be hired would be an additional officer to help offset the school resource officers supplied to the school districts in town. The school districts are picking up 60 percent of the cost for an SRO, he said.
The JCCA campus has also worked out an arrangement with the town for two town police officers to enhance its security at the Broadway campus but is paying the full freight for that expense, Fulgenzi said.
The town will pay its contractually mandated raises that it had agreed to under the current set of contracts.
While the general fund in the preliminary budget exceeds the cap by about $228,000, some of the special districts have also seen spikes, adding to the challenges, Fulgenzi said. Water district costs are anticipated to jump by about 4 percent and the fire districts are increasing by 21 percent.
Fulgenzi said the town is using more than $2 million in fund balance to help limit the impact on taxpayers. A resident who owns a home at the average full value of about $875,000 will see a tax increase of just under $50 on the town’s portion of the budget.
The public hearing on the budget is expected to be adjourned from Nov. 26 to the Dec. 10 meeting. The final budget for 2025 must be adopted no later than Dec. 20.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
