Property Taxes Would Rise by Less Than 2 Percent Under Rye Brook's Proposed Budget

Calling it the "most challenging budget I've ever worked on," Rye Brook Village Administrator Chris Bradbury said the overall 2010-11 tentative village budget would increase by just 1.23 percent over last year's budget.

The tentative budget includes an overall tax levy increase of 2.22 percent, with the residential property tax levy rising by 1.75 percent.

Bradbury presented a brief overview of the proposed $17,025,075 budget Tuesday night at the Village Board meeting. The village will hold public budget workshops on April 5 and April 10, and a full review of the tentative budget is planned for April 13. The board of trustees and mayor must approve the budget by May 1. The full budget is available on the village web site at www.ryebrook.org.

Like most towns and cities across the country, Rye Brook is faced with declining revenues and higher mandated expenses. Personnel costs make up about 61 percent of the total budget, which includes salaries, retirement benefits and health insurance for village employees.

Mayor Joan Feinstein said that to keep increases as low as possible, every village department was asked to cut their departmental budgets by 5 percent, not including personnel costs. "Residents might have to expect some service cuts," Feinstein said.

Some of those service cuts would include a reduction in seasonal staff and not filling two vacant positions for a full-time village engineer and police officer.

The proposed 2010-11 homestead, or residential, tax rate would be 4.19 percent, while the non-homestead, or commercial, tax rate would be 6.58 percent, according to the budget.

The 2010-2011 tentative property tax levy is $13,105,176, which is a 2.22 percent increase over last year's adopted levy, with the residential levy increasing by 1.75 percent. The commercial portion of the tax levy would increase 3.57 percent compared to last year.

Since home revaluation and the adoption of homestead tax rates, the tax levy is a more appropriate indicator of the impact on property taxes than the tax rate, since property assessments will fluctuate year to year to reflect the full values of village properties.

For 2010-11 village tax purposes, total taxable assessed home values is $2.83 billion, which is a $86.45 million decrease in assessed value compared to last year. The median home in Rye Brook costs $755,560, according to recent figures.

To find out the property value of your home visit http://townofrye.sdgnys.com/index.aspx.

To find out how to calculate property tax visit http://www.orps.state.ny.us/pamphlet/taxworks.htm.

Budget workshops, where village departments go through each line of their budgets, are scheduled for Monday, April 5, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 10, at 9 a.m. The public is welcome to attend these sessions, which will not be televised.