OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – If you live in Ogdensburg, your home is likely one of the big driving forces behind the city’s 2024 proposed budget.
“Citywide, every property was re-evaluated in terms of its assessed value, and generally property values increased 20 percent citywide,” said Andrea Smith, interim city manager.
That means a home that’s worth 20 percent more will pay that much more in property taxes even though the tax rate stays the same at $16.58 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The increase could mean a few hundred dollars more for some homeowners.
The proposed budget also gives insight into the city’s constitutional taxing limit. Back in 2019, a report from the state Comptroller’s Office projected the city would reach the limit in 2023.
“We have been working very hard since that report came out with this council as well as the previous council to comply with the recommendations put forth by the financial restructuring board,” said Smith.
The fact is, if a municipality reaches its constitutional tax limit, or simply put, can’t tax its residents anymore, and the municipality’s expenses keep going up, the next step could be bankruptcy. But Smith says that’s not a concern for the 2024 preliminary budget.
“Until we really start to increase our revenue to offset our expenses, so that’s going to continue to be a concern as we go into subsequent budget years, but in 2024 it’s not a concern for me with the budget that has been presented,” she said.
Councillor John Rishe says this is just the beginning of budget negotiations.
“My overall goal is to actually reduce taxes, and I’m hopeful through thoughtful consideration of the budget and evaluating it that we are able to achieve that,” he said.
While there aren’t job cuts, Councillor Dan Skamperle has some concerns regarding fire and police.
“There’s a lot of crime in Ogdensburg, and I don’t think our detective staff is fully staffed right now, and we really need that,” he said.
The preliminary budget will be presented at Monday night’s city council meeting.
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