Village of New Paltz Releases Tentative Budget

The Village of New Paltz released its tentative budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 on Feb. 26, marking the tenth consecutive year that the village has retained its tax rate of $4.912 per $1000 of assessed value. This feat has been held as a point of pride for the Village Board of Trustees.

The village’s fiscal year begins on June 1 and ends on the following May 31. It uses a budget calendar set by New York’s Office of the State Comptroller Division of Local Government to formulate the budget on a consistent annual basis. This dictates that the final budget must be adopted by May 1 following public hearings up to April 20. The Village’s public hearing this year began on March 26 and is scheduled to close at the board’s next meeting on April 9.

The Village Board of Trustees, led by Mayor Tim Rogers, held its public hearing on the budget on Mar. 26, though no community members presented at that time.  Questions or comments are being accepted until the next meeting on April 9.

When the budget was announced at the Feb. 26 meeting, Rogers gave comments expressing his stance towards it and what community members should know about the number-heavy document.

“It is our job as a fiduciary to make sure that we are matching expenses with revenue,” Rogers said. The village board has been focused on the fund balance, or the total accumulation of operating surpluses and deficits since the beginning of the village government’s existence. These surpluses can serve as emergency funding to be readily available without raising additional taxes. The board aims to have about 20-23% of annual expenses in unassigned fund balance, though they do not maintain an official fund balance policy. Rogers also asserted that having too much in fund balance amounts to unnecessary taxes on residents, something he has recently accused the New Paltz Town Board of doing.

The assessed value for the entire Village of New Paltz is listed in the tentative budget as $321,188,322, marking a roughly 0.74% increase from last year. Total assessed value increases 0.68% per year on average due to property development. This has allowed the property tax levy to rise at the same rate to $1,577,804. Such an increase is viewed positively for the village.

The tentative budget is available at the office of the Village Clerk and on the Village’s website, https://www.villageofnewpaltz.org/. Public comments may be submitted in three ways: by leaving a comment on YouTube livestreamed meetings, on Zoom livestreamed meetings or by writing to projectmanager@villageofnewpaltz.org.