By JEFF MORRIS
Town Comptroller Brian Kenneally, who gave a brief outline of the 2025 budget at the Nov. 7 town board meeting, provided a more detailed look during a budget presentation Nov. 19. The town board had accepted the 2025 tentative budget on Nov. 7, at which time it became the preliminary budget. At Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted to officially adopt that budget.
Kenneally explained the methodology for calculating the 2025 tax cap. Starting with the 2024 tax levy, which was $29,375,569, he said the calculation helps determine how much the levy can be increased and still be in compliance with the tax cap. Most people think of the cap as being 2 percent, he said; that is the allowable tax levy growth factor for 2025, and even if inflation is more than 2 percent, that component of the calculation is still capped at 2 percent.
“However, there are exclusions when doing the calculation that apply to us,” he said. “The one I want to focus on is, we had a growth in our tax base factor.” That figure, 1.0153, represents the growth in taxable assessments, which he said is a “good thing for the town” as it helps offset the actual tax rates from the levy.
After doing the calculation, Kenneally said, they determined that in order to still be in compliance with the cap, they could increase the levy by $1,076,797, or 3.67 percent.
In actuality, after compiling all the funds in the budget, the proposed levy increase is 2.77 percent, or $814,088.
“We are currently $262,000 below the tax cap,” Kenneally said. “It’s a very nominal tax increase for most.”
He said even though the levy increase is 2.77 percent, because of the growth in the tax base, the 2.77 percent will be more around a 2 percent tax rate increase for next year.
Total proposed appropriations are $47,534,497, with non-tax revenues of $16,394,840. Appropriated reserves, which Kenneally said are often referred to as using the fund balance, are $950,000. He said this is like using your savings to offset future increases. Last year, $977,000 was appropriated.
“I also want to point out that while we’ve been appropriating fund balance the last couple of years, a lot of revenue sources came in very good, so we actually didn’t have to end up using fund balance,” he said. That doesn’t mean they won’t wind up using the $950,000 either, said Kenneally, but they are fiscally conservative in budgeting.
The total tax levy is $30,189,657, which is $262,709 below the cap.
Kenneally noted that, as with most local governments, the majority of costs are salary and benefits. One of the biggest costs is health insurance, which makes up 16 percent of the town’s budget. Bedford participates in the NYSHIP plan, the cost of which, he said, is obviously trending up. He pointed out that for the NYSHIP family plan, there was a nearly 13 percent increase in 2022 and a nearly 15 percent increase in 2023. While the NYSHIP family plan increase for 2024 was comparatively less, at 6.02 percent, Kenneally said there was a concurrent Medicare increase that “went through the roof,” so the total health insurance cost was much higher.
“We don’t have the final NYSHIP rates for next year,” he said, but he felt the right thing to do was to budget a 10 percent increase to be safe.
One aspect of the health plan increase Kenneally pointed to, as he thought it was interesting, was that of 231 participants in the NYSHIP bill, only 121 were active employees. He said this was indicative of demographic trends in all governments, not just in New York, with larger numbers of retirees who had “better negotiated contracts where they contribute less.” He anticipated that the town will probably reach a point where they have more non-active than active employees.
To get a sense of how the tax rates may affect individual taxpayers, Kenneally had the assessor provide him with real bills with about a $70,000 assessment — the town’s median — from each hamlet. Using the non-finalized tax rates, and including county and fire district taxes, he found that on a $900,000 property in Bedford Hills, the tax increase would be $87.17; for a bit more than $900,000 fair market value in Bedford Village, which is not in the consolidated water district, the increase would be $71.93; and for around an $870,000 property in Katonah, the increase would be $70.35.
As part of the presentation, Kenneally showed that in Bedford Hills, town taxes comprise 21 percent of total property tax, with county and fire comprising 16 percent and school tax 63 percent. In Bedford Village, town is 19 percent, county/fire is 14 percent and school, 67 percent. In Katonah, town taxes are 19 percent, county/fire 13 percent, and school 68 percent.
Kenneally also broke down details of the General Fund, the Highway Fund, and the town’s special districts, including park, lighting, and water. While there were some sizable percentage increases in a few special districts, he said due to the overall small increase in the budget, these comprised very small dollar amounts.
The budget hearing was opened. No one present or online wished to comment.
Board member Tom Catoliato said he liked the pie charts and percentages that were included in the presentation, and especially the breakdown by hamlet. Stephanie McCaine said she also appreciated the breakdown and Kenneally’s collaboration with the board.
Bobbi Bittker noted the budget process actually started during the summer, and was impressed with how Kenneally, who joined the town in March, had quickly jumped into the process. She thanked department heads for “squeezing everything out of every last dollar,” and remarked that at a time when some other towns are busting their tax cap, Bedford was able to raise taxes by only 1.5 percent and be $262,000 under the tax cap.
“I’m not sure if you understand just how phenomenal that is,” she said.
Andrés Castillo echoed that sentiment, noting the increases in health insurance and costs in general that had to be addressed.
Supervisor Ellen Calves said while there were unavoidable increases, they were “for our staff and our employees, which really are the heart of the services that we provide.”
She praised various department heads for the work they are doing and ability to prioritize within budgetary limits. She also noted that they were able to include increased funding that had been requested by all three town libraries.
With there being no comments from the public, the public hearing was closed, and the board voted to approve the budget.