The Rye City Council approved a 2026 municipal budget Wednesday night that will carry an 8.78 percent tax rate increase, after signing off on adding personnel to its public safety ranks.
The revised budget, which surpasses the state tax cap for the second year in a row, includes the hiring of a new police officer and firefighter. The additions to the budget translate to an average increase of $461 — or roughly $38 each month — in property taxes per household in Rye, up from the originally proposed $443 increase.
Outgoing Mayor Josh Cohn, who has expressed concerns with manpower at the fire department in the past, was a backer of bolstering the ranks, but admitted the addition may not be enough.
“I’ve announced myself as a supporter of the additional policeman and firefighter,” Cohn, who leaves office at the end of the year, said. “I would actually even consider a second firefighter.”
The nearly $55 million spending plan was approved during the council’s final meeting of the year. The adopted tax rate is up from the 8.43 percent initially proposed by the city manager’s budget in November — and more than the state limit, which required the City Council to also approve a budget override.
The tax cap, signed into state law in 2011, establishes a limit on the annual growth of property taxes levied — or the amount needed to be collected — by local governments and school districts to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
The tax levy now stands at roughly $34 million with a new tax rate of $233.17 per $1,000 of assessed property value, according to Deputy Comptroller Joseph Fazzino.
The budget passed — Councilman Bill Henderson, a Republican, was the lone council member to vote the plan down over reservations about boosting the tax rate — after weeks of council deliberations, during which city leaders debated the need for additional firefighters to bolster an understaffed department.
The original budget proposal did not include funding for additional public safety staffing.
“I am concerned about the last minute increase in the budget to hire one extra police officer and a fireman,” said Henderson, who will also leave office at the end of the month. “This expansion of the city workforce was not in the original budget, and we have not received, I think, enough information to really understand why it’s needed.
“Taxes — as we know them — only go up, they never go down. Next year’s tax increase will be built on this year’s, and so on, and so on. “
Several residents emailed city officials over the past week with concerns about the size of the fire department, while others addressed the council on Wednesday night, supportive of hiring more firefighters.
The fire union president, Ricky Colasacco, recently labeled the Rye FD “grossly understaffed” in an interview with The Record.
The one additional firefighter, Interim City Manager Brian Shea said, “is a deliberate step, but not an endpoint.”
Looking ahead, Shea is recommending the council hold public work sessions on public safety staffing early in 2026.
“That session would give us an opportunity to review the investments made over the past several years, assess current conditions, and map out a thoughtful multi-year strategy moving forward,” he said.
Mayor-elect Josh Nathan, a Democrat, supported Shea’s proposal, backing discussions about adjusting the fire department workforce, in particular, to meet modern firefighting needs.
“I think we do have to look at our unique geography,” Nathan said. “I think it’s important for us to define, in 2026, what is the right goal — I very much favor that as the next step.”
