March 26th, 2018
HORNELL, NY – The Hornell Common Council held a Public Hearing on the city’s 2018-19 budget Monday night, and immediately after held a regular session to pass resolutions approving the General and Water Fund Budgets, apportion of taxes collected amounting to $3,275,405.41, and also a resolution giving the ability to override the 2% tax cap. Hornell’s appropriations are up $628,938 over last year for a total of $13,647,091 and revenues are up $437,669 for a total of $9,980,317. The budget is expected to pass in the next monthly Common Council meeting.
Hornell Mayor John Buckley announced that the tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year will be just shy of 2% coming in at 1.99%. Last year’s increase was 1.58%. “That was basically our goal from the start,” said the Mayor, “I wanted to stay under the 2% mark and we did it. Basically we went through every line item and cut where we could and increase numbers where necessary. We had to do some rebalancing, trimming and belt tightening. Last year’s tax rate was $11.75 per thousand dollars of assessed value and this year it’s $11.93.”
Buckley continued, “Breaking it down in real world numbers, if a person’s house or property is accessed at $50,000, they will pay an extra $11.85 in taxes, or the cost of a small pizza.”
On the passing of a resolution to override the 2% tax cap, Buckley stated that it’s usually just a precautionary measure in case something at the last minute arises such as a clerical error or inaccurate number recorded somewhere. You can obtain a copy of the entire 13 page itemized budget at City Hall during business hours.
