The Scarsdale Forum’s fiscal affairs committee has submitted its report on the village’s tentative budget with a recommendation to raise some fees and take other measures to lower the proposed tax rate.
In essence, the committee said the budget as proposed should be approved, but that a separate measure to take $300,000 from the reserve fund and use it to cut the proposed tax rate increase be abandoned. Members argue that reducing the fund balance could affect the village’s borrowing ability. They recommended, instead, to raise some fees and use other cost-cutting measures to lower the rate.
The state has imposed a 2 percent tax increase cap on the levy, the total amount the village needs to raise to pay its bills. The tax rate is not subject to the cap, since the tax rate is subject to, among other things, the total worth of the village’s property and how that value is divided among individual parcels.
Right now, the village is proposing a $48.9 million budget that includes a 2 percent tax levy increase and a 5.5 percent tax rate increase. A public hearing is set for 8 p.m. April 10.
