North Castle Approves Town Budget – Cuts Spending | Armonk NY Realtor

from the Town Supervisor:

On December 12th the North Castle Town Board approved our 2013 Town Budget. Despite a very challenging economic environment, North Castle has approved a budget of $28,901,328 – well below the NY State 2% tax cap and $250,000 less in overall expenses than the 2012 budget. We were able to achieve an overall 1% reduction in expenses notwithstanding the fact that employee pension and health care contributions alone increased $659,517 over 2012 levels.

What does this mean for you? The budgeted tax rate is $155.57 per $1000 in assessed value or a 2.22% increase from 2012. For the owner of a home in North Castle priced at the median market value (approximately $900,000) this represents an increase in your town taxes of $63.86. We believe this to be among the smallest if not the smallest tax increase of any town in Westchester.

I am particularly gratified that we ended the year with a budget surplus of $800,000. These savings will go first towards much-needed infrastructure projects – road repairs, building repairs, a new generator…projects put off in previous years. Second, we will look to rebuild our fund balance, the goal being to restore the Town’s credit rating which was downgraded in 2009 from Aaa to Aa1.

The 2012 surplus did not happen by accident. As I promised, I have managed North Castle like a business. This included bidding out all contracts, holding the line on hiring, passing an employee Compensation and Benefits Manual, reducing departmental costs and initiating financial best business practices. One of my major goals has been to increase our real estate values by restoring North Castle’s property tax advantage over other Westchester Towns. We made good progress this year and I am optimistic about 2013.

I want to thank all our dedicated Town employees. They are truly doing more with less. We should all applaud their efforts.

Thank you all for your support in 2012 and I wish you and your families a healthy and peaceful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Howard B. Arden