The Cornwall Town Board did not adopt its 2025 budget when it met last week, but the state-mandated public hearing on the spending plan was held. It was expected that the board would adopt a preliminary budget at its work session meeting on Tuesday (November 12) before finalizing it to be adopted by November 20.

The public hearing and meeting around it lasted just about an hour. First, Supervisor Josh Wojehowski reviewed the $17,510,802 (including fire districts) budget, noting that it’s just over $1.2 million higher than the 2024 document, stays under the tax cap, and uses $2.3 million in fund balance to keep below the cap. The proposed tax is 5.01% (from 4.78% in 2024) on $1000 of assessed value, or $5.75 per month on a home assessed at $300,000.

The biggest expense in the budget is personnel costs, and the board will go into the new year not 100 percent sure what those will be in 2025 – several contracts with unionized employees are nearing completion but not quite there.

“We’re ultimately going to have to adopt a budget without those numbers, but we have a very good idea of what they will be,” the supervisor said.
Comments were first made by Cornwall-on-Hudson’s Brigid Flynn, who said she spent time at Town Hall that very day reading through the budget. She had nine very specific questions from the budget, on topics including electric car charger cost and revenue, the sale of scrap metal, the Farmers Market, veterans’ services, the town’s credit card system, interest on bonds and grant writers. Wojehowski answered many of them as she spoke.

Also speaking was Cornwall’s Nancy Bryan, who said while she supports fair wages and benefits for the town’s employees, she was “disappointed to see a six percent wage increase for the supervisor and board members”.

The third was former Supervisor Dick Randazzo, who raised the question that eventually prevented the board from acting on the preliminary budget that evening – he had concerns about the way the numbers in the town’s sewer budget lined up (not necessarily the bottom line). The board could not discuss his concerns too much because some of it pertained to the Intermunicipal Agreement the town and village have.

In the end, they decided to look at the document at the board’s work session meeting this week. It was noted that Councilman Tim McCarty, who was not at last week’s meeting, would be in attendance on November 12 – he has worked on the town-village committee on water and sewer. They also have a meeting scheduled (regular business) for Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The final budget must be adopted by November 20.