Harrietstown budget hearing next Thursday | News, sports, jobs

SARANAC LAKE – Members of the Harrietstown City Council have proposed a preliminary budget of nearly $6.9 million for 2025 and will hold a public hearing on the spending and tax plan during Thursday’s board meeting.

As it stands, the preliminary budget is well below the state-imposed tax cap, increases funding for several city initiatives and includes proposed raises for the city supervisor and council members.

A public hearing will be held in the city boardroom downstairs on November 7 at 5:15 p.m. It will also be streamed on Zoom at tinyurl.com/whuh8bhy using the meeting ID 869 3597 6286 and passcode 304349.

The city is proposing a budget of $6,895,744 – an increase of $164,630 or 2.45% from last year’s $6.7 million budget.

The preliminary budget was approved last week on a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Johnny Williams casting the vote “No” to vote.

On Friday he said he voted no because he felt there was uncertainty about the supervisor’s salary in the future.

He said he was not against City Supervisor Jordanna Mallach’s pay increase because she has done a lot of work for the city. But his concern was whether the position should be permanently paid more, even if future supervisors don’t do the same work.

Williams said he asked for this to be a temporary pay increase, but that didn’t happen.

He said he would have felt differently if this was a merit-based increase for Mallach instead of a position-based increase.

–

What’s in the budget?

–

Mallach said the amount the city pays the village for fire protection has increased “considerable” after the village made a change to the city’s contribution to the equipment reserve.

The city has put additional money into professional services for the airport as it addresses a PFAS contamination problem.

Additional money has also been put into the assessment department as they work to update their tax equalization rate from 73% to 100% through revaluation of all city properties, and money is being put into the city codes to make the online zoning code available in a searchable format.

As last year, additional funding is also included for upgrade work at the Town Hall and the community park on John Munn Road.

The budget proposal includes a $2.8 million tax levy to fund city operations over the next year. This levy is $85,310 higher than last year, an increase of 3.1%.

The state-imposed tax cap, which limits how much the city can increase its revenue from taxpayers from year to year, is set this year at $2,851,531 for Harrietstown, or an allowable increase of 3.6%. The proposed tax levy is $14,682 under the cap.

Mallach said the board could consider more additions to the budget after the public hearing, which could bring the tax levy closer to the cap.

“Now that the department heads have gone through the budget planning process with me and the budget officer a few times, I think we can project expenditures more accurately.” Mallach wrote in an email. “In addition, I continue to strive to keep expenses low and secure grant money to cover the costs of projects and reduce the burden on taxpayers.”

With this preliminary tax levy, the tax rate for someone living in the city – as well as the Village of Saranac Lake – would be $2.01 per $1,000 of assessed value, not including taxes for any additional water or sewer districts. This is an increase of 1 cent.

With this preliminary tax levy, the tax rate for someone living in the city, outside the village, would be $3.66 per $1,000 of assessed home value, excluding taxes for any additional water or sewer districts. This is an increase of 10 cents.

For someone with a home assessed at $300,000 in the city and town, that would be a base tax rate of $603 – $4.38 more than last year.

For someone with a home assessed at $300,000 in the town outside the village, that would be a base tax rate of $1,098 – $31 more than last year.

The city expects $3.44 million in revenue, less than the $3.45 million in projected revenue for the current year.

To supplement taxes and other revenues, the city is proposing to draw $623,600 from reserves for 2025. The city is drawing $528,600 from reserves for this year’s budget.

The city has about $1.2 million in general funds, with about $745,000 in other reserves for things like water, sewer, highway, fire protection and special grants.

The city-owned airport has an unrestricted balance of nearly $1.9 million and a restricted balance of about $276,000.

–

Raises for elected officials

–

The preliminary budget includes an increase of $11,669 for the city supervisor and $211 for city council members.

The supervisor position is currently $20,831 per year. The proposed salary would be $32,500, an increase of 56%.

The increases for the four council members would bring their annual salaries from $7,022 each to $7,233 each. That adds up to a cumulative total of $844 more than last year.

For the past two years, Mallach had requested an additional $20,000 in pay, but neither increase was finalized.

Mallach said the supervisor is responsible for the city’s 25 employees, its $6.9 million budget and — unique to Harrietstown — the airport.

“The investment in that position is important to the continued progress of our community,” Mallach wrote in an email. “I believe in representative government and want to ensure that any candidate who wants to run for office can afford to go above and beyond me or my time as supervisor.”

Mallach had said in recent years that she requested the increase because she said she worked full-time in the city and saved taxpayers a lot of money. A large enough contingent of taxpayers and council members who felt that the position of supervisor did not have to be a full-time job and therefore did not require a full-time salary expressed their opposition.

The discussion boiled down to whether the position of supervisor was a full-time job or not. The board was divided at the time, although everyone said that Mallach worked hard.

In the first year, some did not want to make the pay permanent.

In the second year, the increase would have been a one-off for additional work at the city’s airport.

After the public hearing and any budget adjustments during Thursday’s meeting, the board could vote on adopting the budget.

If they don’t do so that evening, they will have to schedule a special meeting for the vote, as the deadline to approve the budget is Nov. 20 and the board’s next regular meeting is Nov. 21.