-with reporting by Alyssa Politi
The City Council has cut into the budget, lowering the proposed tax rate increase to 5.78 percent, while continuing to explore additional cuts that would get the spending plan under the state tax cap.
The city budget was reduced from the original 6.12 percent tax rate increase presented by City Manager Greg Usry last month, meaning Rye residents would now pay, on average, an additional $294 in property taxes per household based on the average estimated home value of $1.98 million. The budget initially proposed a $312 average increase on homeowners.
The reduction to the budget comes after the New York State Health Insurance Program announced a 2.3 percent increase, on Dec. 2, for individual health plans and no increase for family plans. As a result, city officials who initially budgeted a 3 percent increase for city staff health insurance expenditures, were able to cut costs by roughly $100,000 and bring the operating budget down to $49.2 million.
The amendments were unanimously approved by the City Council at its Dec. 4 meeting. Councilman Keith Cunningham, a Republican, and Councilwoman Julie Souza, a Democrat, were absent.
The tax levy is now $31.3 million, constituting the number needed to be collected through property taxes.
However, the budget remains $326,897 over the state-mandated tax cap, according to Deputy City Comptroller Joseph Fazzino. And would, therefore, require an override by the City Council.
The tax cap establishes a limit on the annual growth of property taxes levied by local governments and school districts. If approved as is, the city budget would exceed the cap for the second time in the last three years.
The council also discussed options for deeper budget revisions, including cuts to police training and the officer wellness program, fire prevention education and Fire Department training, and reductions in public works, specifically street maintenance and tree planting — as well as increases to parking and residential permit fees.
But no decisions were made at the meeting.
In order for the budget to become tax cap-compliant, the tax rate increase would have to be brought down to 4.68 percent, according to Fazzino.
“The Council has been diligent and has been asking questions and pushing back, and it’s important,” Republican Councilman Bill Henderson said. “That’s probably the most important part of our job, is to look after the taxpayers’ money.”
Some members of the council voiced opposition to a proposal to cut $40,000 out of the Department of Public Works budget for tree planting, which would result in fewer plantings of pollinator gardens, shrubs, and flowers, emerged as a sticking point.
“I would not touch the tree budget. I think that trees are important to people in Rye for so many reasons,” Mayor Josh Cohn said.
Councilwoman Sara Goddard, a Democrat and environmental advocate, claimed the impact on the community would be much more significant than the benefit to the individual taxpayers. The reduction would amount to a $10 to $12 savings for taxpayers, according to Usry.
Usry and Fazzino also presented the option to increase hourly parking payments from $1 to $1.25 as well as bumping up residential building permits by $1 per $1,000 of the estimated value on construction. Those increased fees would produce $200,000 in new revenue, potentially reducing the tax rate increase to 5.11 percent, according to Fazzino, but still in excess of the tax cap by $126,897.
Fees for residential building permits have not increased in a decade, Usry said.
“The building department is significantly larger and more involved and more costly today than it was even five years ago,” Usry said. “So it’s not inappropriate to be looking at that.”
The City Council left the public hearing on the budget open until its next meeting on Dec. 18. At that meeting, the council is expected to vote on a final budget for 2025.