Spencerport village board approves budget

Spencerport village board approves budget

Taxpayers in the Village of Spencerport will be paying $3.30 per $1,000 assessed valuation following the passage of the 2006-07 budget at the April 5 public hearing.

"There was a little bit of discussion on the amount that employees pay toward health insurance benefits (they pay three percent), a resident questioned the price tag on the road repairs and another requested we replace more sidewalks rather than repair them," Mayor Ted Walker said.

There were really no surprises in the budget which is a 60 cent increase over last year's figure, Walker said. "We planned for the tax rate increase because we knew we were going to be funding our street improvement program," he said. "We had an information meeting in the fall with the public and identified the condition of the streets and told everyone what we needed to maintain them. We identified costs and levels of money we needed to raise."

As part of the spending plan, the village increased funds for street improvement and maintenance by an additional $100,000, the tax rate increase will help raise that additional money. It is allocating the $325,000 (up from $225,000) annually for streets.

Walker said village officials will review the street fund every year at budget time. "Even though the tax rates are going up, we tried to keep it on a lower level," he said. "If we spend a little more now, we can build a reserve so we can maintain the quality level of streets that we have. Chances are, though, we will have another increase next year."

Under the new spending plan, a home assessed at $100,000 will pay about $60 more annually.
Everything else in the budget was cut back as much as possible in anticipation of the increase, he said.

The sewer fee increased from $235 a unit to $270 per unit, in line with last year's increase. "The reason for the increase is for the new capital project associated with our going off line and we are putting money aside to help pay for the costs of that change over to Pure Waters," he said. "The other reason for the increase is simply a continuing operation expense. If the system has leaks or needs upgrades, we have money available for that."

No increases were made in the electric fund.