New Castle to Adopt $50.2M Budget With Slight Tax Rate Decrease
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A slight reduction in town taxes is expected for New Castle residents next year as the Town Board is expected to adopted its $50.2 million spending plan this on Tuesday evening.
Officials are ready to adopt the 2025 budget with a tax levy increase of 2.56 percent, about $63,000 under the cap, including special districts, said town Comptroller Robert Deary. The tax levy hike accounting only for the general and highway lines is 1.29 percent.
It is the 14th consecutive year the town will comply with the tax cap since it first went into effect for municipalities across the state in 2012.
The town is using more than $3.3 million in fund balance, including $2,250,000 of savings from the general fund.
Residents will see a tax rate reduction of .06 percent on their town tax bill. The average homeowner with a house assessed at roughly $1.2 million, will have a bill of $2,762 next year.
Deary said the town has struck a balance in keeping taxes steady for residents while maintaining a healthy fund balance. When he arrived in New Castle, Deary said the town had only about $1.6 million in fund balance; at the end of last year, it held more than $16 million in the general budget fund balance.
“I think we’ve done a good job of maintaining a fund balance but also kind of paying it back out when we’ve needed to,” Deary said. “So I think it’s a fine line.”
A large expense helping to drive the 2025 budget is a $556,000 increase in health insurance costs, topping $6 million for that line, a 10 percent jump over the current year. The town’s contribution to the New York State Retirement System is also seeing a hefty increase of $781,000, a whopping 31 percent hike over this year. New Castle is expected to pay more than $3.2 million toward the state retirement system in 2025.
A bit of good news related to expenditures is that debt service payments will fall by about $471,000 next year, to just under $1.7 million.
Also helping the town is a projected sales tax revenue increase of $500,000 to $4.75 million, Deary said. Most other key revenue lines are anticipated to remain steady or rise slightly, including mortgage tax, commuter parking fees, money from building permits, concession income and the town’s summer camp programs.
Projected expenses and revenues for highway, the water treatment plant and refuse are expected to have slight variations.
There will be a slight increase for residents in the Millwood Fire District, but an expected increase of $233 next year for the New Castle Fire District as a result of the expansion project at the King Street firehouse. Northern Fire Protection District taxpayers, which the town contracts for service from Mount Kisco, will see an average increase of about $115.
Since Millwood and New Castle are independent entities, the increases are not part of the town’s tax levy.
Supervisor Victoria Tipp said in a difficult environment when multiple communities throughout the county are forced to exceed the tax cap, New Castle has managed well.
“Some municipalities have had to go over the cap and I’m really glad we’re not one of them,” Tipp 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/
