Though the formal presentation of the Town of Montgomery’s proposed 2024 budget is still a few weeks away, Supervisor Ron Feller was happy to offer a sneak preview at last week’s town board meeting.
“If you look at the summary sheet, for the A fund, B fund, there’s no tax increase,” Feller said. “That means…the amount to be raised by taxes from ’23 to ’24 stayed the same.”
The supervisor offered a further explanation. The total budget appropriation ($18.6 million) is the same as the current fiscal year, but the amount to be raised by taxes will actually be more. That’s because, he said, the Village of Walden was not part of the Town of Montgomery Ambulance District at that time. Instead, the Village of Walden wrote the town a check for $136,000 in June to cover the cost of ambulance service for the village. The Village of Walden will officially become a part of the Town of Montgomery Ambulance District on January 1, 2024 and village residents will see that cost reflected in their town tax bill under “special assessment districts.”
“So it appears on 2024 that our increase is 16 .7 percent,” Feller said. “But that’s because we’re basing it on a sample that did not include the village of Walden.”
Feller warned that there could still be some changes, since the highway department is not yet complete and those figures are only estimates, since the price of materials, including salt and sand, are not finalized.
He said some money is being saved because the highway department is now on a four-day work week, instead of five.
“So we are saving 20 percent of fuel and I did get some feedback because some of the people work for the highway, they like it,” Feller said. “It’s actually helped (Highway Superintendent Shawn Meres) cut down all the time a little bit and it’s cut down, you know, wear and tear on the vehicles because they’re using four days out of five.”
Feller said the budget will also set aside funds for a proposed new Town of Montgomery Police Station, something that has been in the works for more than a year.
“It’s in the A fund,” Feller said. “And even with that proposed money for the police station, we are still coming in at zero percent increase for the A fund, which I think is really great.”
The town board will hold a special meeting on Monday, October 16, at 9 a.m. to formally introduce the tentative 2024 town budget. At that time, the board is also expected to schedule a budget hearing, along with public hearings on each of the town’s special assessment districts, for Thursday, October 24.