The Dresden town board on Monday, October 10th, passed the 2015 town budget which included a 6.77 % increase in the tax levy. In order to do this, a public hearing was held at the beginning of the evening to override the tax cap and approval was required by the town board. Six people where in attendance at the public meeting. The increase was the largest in some time and was necessitated primarily by an increase in the medical insurance costs of town employees and a need to increase the town’s reserve fund balance which had dipped precipitously low over the past few years.
A discussion was held on the tax cap and the changes in prior year’s budgets that resulted in the increase in taxes for 2015. Over the past ten years, the budget adjusted solely for inflation would have increased approximately 25%. However the actual increases over that same period were closer to 10%. The feeling was that the town had worked diligently over the previous ten year period to hold the line on taxes but the 2015 increase could not be any smaller.
For taxpayers of Sewer District #1, all debt of the district was paid off in 2014. This results in no capitalization charge for debt in the 2015 tax bill for users of Sewer District #1.
The minutes of the previous month’s October regular meeting were approved and are posted on the Dresden website here, as well as the minutes of a special meeting held on October 29th, which authorized the public hearing on overriding the tax cap.
I expect to post a copy of the 2015 budget once I receive it in the next few days.