Kent Considers 6% Budget Increase

By Holly Crocco

The Town of Kent is considering a 5.94 percent increase to its overall budget for 2027, with $8.8 million in the general fund and $5.6 million for the police department.

Both the highway and general fund budgets increase 6 percent, which amounts to $679,000 more for the general fund and $313,000 more for the highway department.

“That’s considerably low compared to prior years,” said Director of Finance Cristina Cahill at the Oct. 20 Kent Town Board meeting.

Town Supervisor Jaime McGlasson noted that the impact on homeowners isn’t as drastic as 6 percent sounds. “In the town budget it’s really important not to look at the percentage, but to look at the whole number,” she said.

A 6 percent increase to the town budget equates to about $90 a year for a home valued at $450,000.

“That would increase our fund balance, which is huge for us,” noted Councilman Shawn Boyd.

When it comes to revenue, Cahill said court fees have been significantly lower recently, as have franchise fees from Verizon and Comcast. “Everyone is streaming nowadays, so that has significantly decreased over the years,” she said.

A majority of the increase in spending comes down to personnel, with employees receiving a 2 percent cost of living increase, and rising health insurance and retirement rates.

While police and union contracts are still being negotiated, the town supervisor and town council again agreed to forgo a salary hike.

The Lake Tibet Park District budget shows a 29 percent increase, which Cahill said does not equate to a significant dollar amount and only affects residents of the park district.

“Last year they were really the only district that had a surplus, so they asked to use some of their fund balance to cover the revenue,” she explained. “I said we’re not doing that. We’re not using fund balance whatsoever… We are not using any fund balance across the board for any district. We are not doing that mistake that was done in the past.”

The sewer district budget went down 9.5 percent, now that the town has its own sewer district – which costs less to operate than what it was paying a company to do. “This has been a really positive change for the town,” said Cahill.

The water district budgets have remained flat. However, they have negative fund balances.

“There are a lot of districts that have a negative fund balance,” explained Cahill. “My main focus for the budget this year was to stabilize our finances that we have currently… My suggestion is on all those districts that have negatives, to start building the fund balance back up out of the negatives. In order to do so we have to increase the levy a little bit more.”

Highway Superintendent Richard Othmer Jr., said his department’s budget is driven by increasing costs for trucks and equipment, fuel oil, blacktop, and salt.

“The salt prices have increased drastically,” he said, noting that it has gone from $80 per ton to $120 per ton.