Two city council members in Port Jervis, New York, told The Epoch Times that the proposed city tax levy would make lives even harder for financially struggling residents.
Mayor Kelly Decker proposed an 8.9 percent increase at the Oct. 3 city council meeting, which means an average resident would see a $315.30 increase on the next city tax bill.
That number has since been adjusted to 7.33 percent, following an update in retirement estimates and a correction of a typo, according to both council members.
But that is still too high for Michael Decker, a first-term councilman representing the city’s third ward.
“The one thing that I’m most concerned about is our residents. A lot of people voice their concerns about how they are going to afford certain things. With every little increase, it makes things harder,” Michael Decker said.
He acknowledged that much of the increase was due to contractual salary agreements, which must be honored and are beyond the control of a councilperson.
“We are going to do our best to get it down as low as we can,” he said.
Maria Mann, a councilwoman representing the second ward, said that she hopes more residents would participate in the budget process and voice their concerns.
A budget workshop is set for Oct. 19, and another budget hearing is on Nov. 14.
For Mann, a 5 percent increase would be acceptable.
Mayor Blames Inflation
At the Oct. 3 city council meeting, Kelly Decker proposed to collect $7.3 million in city taxes in 2023, an almost 9 percent jump from that of the past year.“Am I happy with this? No. Is it the most reasonable budget that I can give you? It is. I worked hard with our department heads to get the number—the numbers were much higher—down to a single-percentage rate,” he said.
All taxes are to refill the general fund to support the daily operation of city departments, which is getting more costly due to inflation, according to Kelly Decker at the meeting.
“As a matter of fact, all our costs are up over 30 percent. If we don’t have that inflation, our budget increase will be at 0.2 percent instead,” he said at the meeting.
The mayor arrived at that number by deducting the proposed hike—8.9 percent—by 8.7 percent, which was the amount of cost-of-living adjustment recently made by the Social Security Administration.
“My food bills went up almost 50 percent. My gas bills went up 50 percent. I have yet to receive my heating bills, but I understand that’s going to be an incredible amount. So, understand that all the personal bills that people have to pay—that is compounded with the city,” Kelly Decker said.
Another factor is the contractual salary and benefits obligations, which alone would bring the taxes up by 4.4 percent, according to Kelly Decker.
He said salaries and benefits account for more than 90 percent of the city budget.
Mayors and city council members do not get pay raises under the proposed budget.
Kelly Decker said some towns were covering the cost bumps by borrowing off fund balances and selling public properties—which he advised against out of concern for sustainability.
