http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/05/18/budget18.htm
May 18, 2005
Taxes in Kiryas Joel stable; no hike for 8th straight year
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Kiryas Joel – The last time this village raised property taxes, Bill Clinton was president and Monica Lewinsky had yet to become a household name.
"Titanic" – both the doomed ship and the film's leaden dialogue – was sinking quickly on movie screens; Rosanne Barr was a sassy TV mom; and the Florida Marlins were on their way to winning the World Series in only their fourth season.
Kiryas Joel, the region's newest and fastest-growing municipality, the one with all the expensive capital projects, has just adopted a $7.4 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year with the same tax rate that was set back in 1997.
Eight years in a row with no tax increase.
Yes, the village is raising its tax levy – the total amount it collects from property owners to support its spending. That figure will go up by 7.7 percent to roughly $1.4 million in the fiscal year beginning on June 1.
But the tax base has widened at a comparable rate over the last year, largely because of the relentless housing construction. That means the tax rate will remain at an unusually low $14.14 per $1,000 of assessed value.
But what about all the big capital projects completed or started since the last tax hike – the sewage treatment plant, the fire station, the chicken slaughterhouse, the convalescence center for mothers? Or the trucks and equipment for the sanitation and fire departments formed since taxes last rose?
Or, for that matter, the money spent so far on engineers and lawyers to plan and defend the village's proposed $21 million water hookup to the Catskill Aqueduct?
The simplest explanation appears to be government grants, which have helped pay for several of the capital projects, and municipal bonds – the usual way to space out large costs over a number of years.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin explained this week that his village, like other municipalities, accounts for its capital spending outside its operating budget, so that a $21 million water project wouldn't suddenly crank up spending and taxes.
However the accounting was done, the bottom line remains: The tax rate is $14.14. Again.
