A year ago, the Highlands Town Board started its annual budget work $535,000 over the town’s state-mandated tax cap. This year, they started just $300,000 over it.

Last year, the board ended up having to use $420,000 from its fund balance to get to the tax cap; it appears that this year they’ll use just $120,000 to get to that point.

Of course, that’s all contingent on the board being able to cut $300,000 from the initial requests of its department heads. They started that work last week.

Supervisor Bob Livsey noted at the September 21 meeting that he also has the goal of giving all non-contract employees a three percent pay increase for 2027 – that increase in recent years has been just two percent.

Comptroller Kelly Pecoraro noted that while, yes, the board can and will cut from the current tentative budget, there are some increases they won’t be able to avoid, including a $25,000 increase in retirement costs (and another $15,000 in police retirement costs); a $60,000 increase in health insurance costs; and the fact that fuel costs for the town’s vehicles are trending upwards of 36 percent at this point in the current year from a year ago.

It was the health insurance increase – some of which employees must pick up – that made Livsey suggest the higher salary increases. He noted that after paying for increases in things like their health insurance costs, employees aren’t seeing any pay increase at all.

There was one other bit of potentially good news – while the town still has a $4 million bond in place to pay for 2023 flood repairs, FEMA has now reimbursed the town $973,000 and other payments totaling about $800,000 may soon be on the way. Receiving those could allow the town to reduce the bond to $3 million, which would lower the fees and interest paid on that money.

Pecoraro gave the board a little incentive to get down to the tax cap. If the budget were adopted as it stands right now, she said, a home in Fort Montgomery would see an $84.30 increase on their tax bill for every $100,000 of assessed value. A home in Highland Falls would see an increase of $25.63 on their tax bill for every $100,000 of assessed value.

The board will be meeting with department heads weekly until their work is done. On the first night they met with Highway Superintendent Greg Maher, Highland Falls Library Director Stacy Falk, and Historian Ronnie Coffey.

Maher’s areas of discussion included sanitation costs – it was noted that tipping fees (the cost to dispose of waste and recycling) have cost the town $292,000 this year (through August), with $150,000 left in that budget.

Maher, who is retiring at the end of this year, asked the board to increase the department’s vehicle maintenance budget lines by $10,000, saying that a new full-time mechanic is “getting caught up” on needed and preventative maintenance on the town’s aging fleet of vehicles. Deputy Supervisor Rich Sullivan added that there is no reason to expect that maintenance will get any less expensive in years to come, with the price of parts and other materials increasing.

The board decided to add $15,000 to the Highway Garage Equipment Reserve Fund in 2027 – it has a current balance of $79,000.

Falk, from the library, asked for $10,000 more than was donated to the library from the town in 2026, bringing that amount to $295,000. She said she would like to increase the salaries of the library staff, that insurance is expected to cost a bit more in 2027, and that she and her staff are saving money by doing custodial work in the building themselves.

That made an impact on Livsey, who typically suggests that the board meet the library half-way with their requested increase.

“I don’t want to cut anything from them,” he said. Councilwoman Nancy Sporbert agreed, calling the library the “best public space in town”. Councilman Tyrone King added that money going to the library “is well worth it when you look at the impact the library has on the community.”

Coffey asked for no increase in her budget, which the board readily agreed to. She accepted praise from board members on the successful programs that have taken place throughout 2026 – America’s 250th birthday.

The board was scheduled to meet again on September 28 and then again on October 5, and, likely, Monday, Oct. 12, which is Columbus Day. Those meetings all start at 6 p.m. A public hearing on the budget is planned for November 2, with adoption required by Nove