Warwick approves village budget for 2007-08 with modest tax increase

Warwick — The Village of Warwick approved its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a budget that will raise taxes 2.7 percent. “I am very pleased with the tax rate this year,” said Mayor Michael Newhard Monday night at the village’s meeting, which was originally scheduled for last Monday, but postponed because of weather. Michael Vernieri, the village’s accountant, said the village will have paid off its water bonds in full at the end of this year, and the bond anticipation notes for the village’s sewer system are almost complete. In addition, Vernieri said the village has been putting money into an equipment reserve fund so that when new equipment is needed, taxpayers aren’t taking a major hit. “Over the years, we’ve put money in the equipment reserve fund to keep taxes stable when we have to buy equipment,” said Vernieri. “This year we’re spending over $100,000 for equipment and not touching the tax rate. We’re taking it from the reserve.” The village’s budget is broken into three parts: the general fund, the water tax and sewer tax. The general fund, which includes all salaries, benefits, insurance and police services, is slated to increase to $4,497,942, with taxes going up 4.8 percent over last year’s. An increase in the sewer land tax budget of 12.9 and a decrease of 63.3 percent in the water land tax are also part of this budget, bringing the total increase to 2.7 percent. Taxpayers can expect to pay $24.59 per $1,000 of assessed value for the general fund; $18.60 per $1,000 for the sewer fund, and $3.21 per $1,000 for the water tax. Last year, the rates were $23.46 per $1,000 of assessed value for the general fund, $16.47 per $1,000 for sewer, and $8.75 per $1,000 for water. The sewer and water taxes are applied only to the land value of the property. Each of these amounts went down last year. With the increases this year, taxpayers will pay $1.21 less per $1,000 in the general budget than they did in 2005-06. For water, the decrease is greater still. In 2005-06 residents paid $9.06 per $1,000; this year, they are paying $3.21. The sewer tax increases seven cents per $1,000 of assessed value over the 2005-06 fiscal year. An average home that is assessed at $50,000, or less than one quarter of market value, will pay $1,229.50 toward the general fund. This is an increase of $56.50 for the average taxpayer over last year’s. An average home on 20,000 square feet of land assessed at $11,500 would be taxed at $250.82 for sewer and water taxes, down $39.21 from last year’s amount.