By NEAL RENTZ
A split Lewisboro Town Board approved a 2025 preliminary budget that would include a tax rate increase that would meet the state tax cap of 2.9 percent at its Nov. 25 work session.
The combined general and highway budgets total $16,782,565.
Voting in favor of the budget were Supervisor Tony Gonçalves and councilpersons Mary Shah and Daniel Welsh. Voting against next year’s spending plan were councilpersons Andrea Rendo and Richard Sklarin.
Following weeks of discussion, the board significantly reduced the tax rate increase. Gonçalves noted at last week’s meeting that his tentative budget called for a tax hike of 14.27 percent.
But Gonçalves has revised his spending plan though proposed revenue increases and spending decreases from his original budget. He told the town board last week in the revenue categories he is seeking to increase by $400,000 to bring the total in the category to $575,000. The supervisor also increased the mortgage and sales tax revenue category by 11.9 percent.
The revised revenues in the latest version of the budget includes two revenue reductions — the supervisor has reduced the revenues expected from the sale of town-owned properties by 33 percent because the town does not anticipate selling any of its properties next year; and there is a reduction of $7,500 in planning board fees.
The revised budget also calls for a 20 percent increase in spending from the current year, which includes a 234 percent increase from the current year for road paving.
The revised budget calls for a slight spending increase, 0.85 percent, over the current year. Some of the components of the general fund budget includes 3 percent raises for non-union town employees; a reduction of $35,500 for shared services; and an addition of $10,000 for town attorney fees.
The preliminary budget will include surplus revenue which has been accumulated over the past few years to help meet the tax cap. The latest version of the budget includes an interest surplus of $543,000 from 2022 through 2024; Building Department surplus accumulated this year is $328,00 through Oct. 31.
The revised proposal for library funding was debated at last week’s meeting. Councilman Ricard Sklarin asked about the town’s contribution to the library this year. Gonçalves said this year’s contribution to the library is $612,000.
During previous meetings town board members debated how much the library should receive from the town. Gonçalves said last week the library reduced its request for an additional contribution from the town by $8,226. As a result, the revised request for library funding is $68,878 more than the current year, he said. The most recent request for the library contribution makes up 3.5 percent of the town’s budget and .08 percent of the latest proposed tax increase, he said.Sklarin and Rendo said the library contribution proposed by the supervisor should be reduced.
“It’s not cutting, it’s limiting the increase,” Sklarin said.
“At a minimum, we can cut the library budget by $35,000,” Rendo said. The library, not the town board, determines where its funding goes, she said. However, Rendo added up various categories which she felt the library was seeking to spend excessively and cut that amount in half.
Gonçalves said part of the additional funding he wanted the town to provide for the library would be for the hiring of a part-time employee to seek grants. “It’s worth seeing how that plays out,” he said. His funding proposal for the library makes up less than 1 percent of the tax increase, he said.
Welsh and Shah said they supported the full library contribution increase of $68,878 sought by Gonçalves. Shah described the library as “the living room of Lewisboro.”
A majority of the board disagreed with the proposal from Sklarin to freeze the tax rate next year rather than adopting a budget that met the tax cap. Gonçalves said he did not want to take additional surplus to have a zero tax rate in 2025, because doing so could force the town to do additional borrowing in the future.
“I’m only talking about next year” in terms of taking more of the surplus to fund the 2025 budget, Sklarin said.
The board has scheduled a public hearing on the budget and legislation to go above the tax cap if needed for Monday, Dec. 9. The deadline to approve the 2025 budget is Dec. 20.