Budget cuts spending but increases tax levy

WOODSTOCK >> The town’s proposed budget for 2017 would cut spending by 1.3 percent but raise the property tax levy by 1.9 percent.

The proposal totals $7.06 million, which is about $93,000 lower than the 2016 amount. The amount to be generated by property taxes is to rise by about $115,000, to $6.16 million. Information was not immediately available about the state-set cap for Woodstock’s tax levy increase.

Town Board member Bill McKenna said the highway tax levy in the budget is proposed to increase by about 5 percent because there isn’t a fund balance to carry over from 2016 to 2017.

“We’ve built three bridges in the last three years, so we’ve depleted those reserves a little bit and we need to build them up a little bit,” McKenna said.

Proposed pay raises in the budget include 2 percent for the town supervisor, to $36,404 per year; 3.3 percent for each of the four Town Board members, to $10,395 apiece; 2 percent for the town clerk, to $57,557; and 3 percent for the town highway superintendent, to $72,511.

The 2017 budget also includes:

• $972,289 for medical insurance, up 10.7 percent from 2016.

• $949,741 for police, up 3.8 percent.

• $470,000 in state retirement fund contributions, down 3.1 percent.

•$309,509 for the Building Department, down 5 percent.

• $258,199 for snow removal, up 0.9 percent.

• $126,090 in workers’ compensation costs, down 9.9 percent.