North Castle on Target for Fourth Straight Budget With No Tax Increase
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
By Martin Wilbur
The North Castle Town Board is on track to approve a $42.6 million budget for 2025 with no tax increase, bolstered by an overflowing fund balance that will be used to help balance the budget.
Board members are expected to adopt next year’s spending plan at the final regular meeting of the year next Wednesday with a 3.2 percent increase – a little more than $1.3 million – in spending from 2024. The tax levy is at $158,000 under the cap of $24,430,013 for next year.
It would be the fourth consecutive year that residents would see no tax increase, with only a 2.2 percent tax increase over the past six years, said town Director of Finance Abbas Sura.
If adopted with no changes, a homeowner with a house at the median price in town of about $1.2 million would pay $3,427 in town taxes, the same as the current year.
“The focus has always been keeping expenditures as low as possible and to provide the town with the best possible services,” Sura said.
In order to keep the tax rate unchanged next year, the town is proposing to use $4.1 million in total fund balance, including $2.7 million from fund balance for the general, highway and library budget, Sura said. About $1.4 million would be used from the special districts’ fund balance, mainly the water and sewer funds, he said.
According to Town Administrator Kevin Hay, there is about $25 million in the general, highway and library fund balance and about $6 million for the districts. Hay said there are increased revenue projections from the prior year’s actuals, which has added to the fund balance.
“In terms of revenues, yes, we’re using a lot of the fund balance, and then year-over-year it’s less than last year because we added some into the fund balance this year,” Sura said.
The only position that is being added for 2025 is one police officer.
Spikes in benefits for the upcoming year are being felt by municipalities across the county and the state. Hay said the increase in health insurance costs is estimated to rise by 8 percent and cost of the contributions to the retirement funds is anticipated to be 3 percent.
While the fund balance is robust, there are some likely significant projects and expenditures looming in the near future. There will have to be significant upgrades made to the town pool and officials are in the midst of exploring whether to acquire the Boies Schiller Flexner building in downtown Armonk to serve as the next Town Hall. There is also a fear that inflation accelerates again.
Town Board members were pleased with the financial condition of the town despite persistent uncertainties in the economy and future large expenses. However, it may be necessary in the future to budget for small increases to prevent a significant jump in the event of difficult times.
“We spent a lot of time as a town and as a board working on this budget,” said Supervisor Joseph Rende. “We actually recognize we had some difficult decisions to make and we really peeled back the onion, so to speak. “One of the things that we really encouraged going forward from this year, that we are going to budget more to actual, which had not necessarily been the case in the past, right. We recognize that as a town we’ve benefitted from the 0 percent increases, that it’s not realistic for us to try and stay on that path.”
Councilman Jose Berra said despite using fund balance the past few years, the town’s savings increased because the town was underestimating revenues and overestimating expenses. He agreed that small increases in the future might be prudent.
Thanking his board colleagues and town staff for working hard on striking a good balance this year was Councilman Saleem Hussain. He thanked Sura for his efforts for the 2025 budget.
“I think this was a great team effort and I appreciate your leadership in bringing this all together,” Hussain said.
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/
