Carmel Presents Tax Rate Decrease

By Holly Crocco

Carmel Town Supervisor Mike Cazzari and Comptroller Mary Ann Maxwell presented a $36.3 million tentative budget during the Oct. 1 Carmel Town Board meeting, which reflects an overall tax levy increase of just over $1 million – falling below the state-mandated property tax cap.

“We’re doing more with less,” explained Cazzari. This includes eliminating two positions at town hall, while also fulfilling a commitment to give the parks and recreation department a much-needed boost.

“We continue to make progress in repairing the aging infrastructure and facilities here,” continued the supervisor. “That is a top priority on the forefront of this budget, and despite the rising costs, the town still maintains that Aa1 bond rating that gets us the low interest rates for our capital projects.”

According to Maxwell, the town has been at 100 percent equalized assessed value for a couple years now, bringing the total townwide assessed value to $6.8 billion – an increase of about $400 million since the last budget.

From 2021 to 2026, the town’s total assessed value has increased almost $2 billion.

The tentative 2026 budget includes $36.3 million in expenditures, $8.1 million in revenue, and the use of $600,000 from the fund balance, amounting to a $27.6 million tax levy.

When divided by the $6.8 billion in assessed value, that equals a tax rate of 4.06 – which is a decrease of 1.67 percent from the current year.

“An increase in the assessed value from one year to the next may result in a decrease in the tax rate if the levy decreased or remained the same,” explained Maxwell. “It’s more assessed value to share, so basically that’s why your tax rate is going down. But that doesn’t mean your tax bill will go down.”

Under the tentative budget, the average homeowner with a property valued at $516,785 will pay $2,098 per year in town taxes, which is a $31 decrease if the assessed value of that person’s property remains the same.

Contractual employee salaries and benefits make up the bulk of the budget, at 77.2 percent sprinkled across the various departments.

About $14.4 million (39 percent of the budget) is earmarked for public safety, $9.8 million (27 percent) for transportation/highway department, $7.3 million (20 percent) for general governmental services, $2.7 million (7 percent) for recreation and culture, and $1.6 million (4 percent) for debt service.

One big budget driver is the 10 percent increase in the public safety budget, with $13.1 million going toward salaries and benefits for the police department, overtime increasing $763,000, and the purchase of two new vehicles and two uplifts totaling $145,000. Some of this will be offset by $776,000 in grant funding.

Another big budget driver is the 2 percent increase in spending proposed for the highway department.

“The general highway (budget) is where you’re going to see the biggest increase,” explained Maxwell.

The snow budget is proposed at $1.6 million, with $750,000 in the snow reserve fund balance. About $100,000 is budgeted for capital machinery, plus $1.5 million in highway capital reserves.

“That has helped us to really not have to borrow for trucks, and we haven’t had to borrow for trucks in quite a number of years,” said Maxwell of the reserve fund.

Other budget drivers include a $120,000 increase in information technology spending, including equipment, software, consulting, website design, and other services. In addition, there’s a decrease in the building maintenance department as a full-time position is changing to part-time, and decreases in the engineering, assessor and recreation departments, as vacancies are not being filled.

In the tentative budget, the recreation department reflects a 10 percent increase to cover employee costs – including new administrative and park maintenance positions. Most equipment and capital improvements will be funded through the Parkland Trust, which has a current balance of $2.2 million.

The Mahopac Public Library and Reed Memorial Library are each slated to receive $40,000.

Within “special districts,” ambulance and fire contracts reflect a 2.5 percent increase, and garbage district costs will increase between 3 and 5 percent.

According to Maxwell, the town’s contribution to the New York State pension system is also increasing. “I have seen a large increase over the past two years in pension costs,” she said. “From 2023 to 2026, it has gone up substantially.”

Revenue drivers include $975,000 in mortgage taxes, $790,000 in building permit fees, $507,000 in recreation fees, and $550,000 in interest earnings. Also, about $560,000 is being budgeted for health employee contributions.

Still, about 76 percent of the town’s revenue comes from property taxes.

Maxwell explained that the budget does not include funds from the recently enacted sales-tax-sharing agreement with the county, in which municipalities have been promised a portion of sales tax revenue that usually goes to the county. That funding will be restrictive.

“It cannot be used just to offset the budget,” she explained. “It has to be infrastructure related… I think I’m going to open a separate capital fund so that we can track the sales tax projects. It’s not something that we can just kind of plug into the budget because it is restricted.”

Also, payments are expected quarterly. “I would rather wait and see what we’re going to get, and then we can adjust the budget throughout the year,” said Maxwell.

The town board will now review the budget and discuss changes during its Oct. 15 meeting. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled Nov. 5, with a vote scheduled Nov. 19.

The budget can be viewed at www.townofcarmelny.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_10012025-586.