Casale, left, and Ruggiero
BEACON – Beacon officials Monday night unveiled the city’s preliminary 2016 city budget with a residential property tax increase of 1.44 percent.
Total spending for next year – general, water and sewer funds – comes in at just under $26 million.
Beacon Mayor Randy Casale said years of smart spending have led to a
promising budget for 2016. He said it is a balanced budget.
“I know nobody likes to see a tax increase and we do our best but, to keep this city moving forward, you have to budget what you believe you need because my old saying is, ‘you pay me now or pay me later’ and I believe this has been a great budget,” Casale said. “I believe the administrator, the department heads and the finance director did a great job putting it together and I think the tax payers of Beacon will really appreciate the services they get and the minimum increase that they’re going to get in their taxes.”
The small tax increase Casale refers to is a 1.44 percent homestead tax increase; however, it is a miniscule sacrifice compared to the savings Beacon has made for 2016. Beacon has been rated a 1.7 on the state comptroller’s fiscal stress index. To put that into perspective, according to the index, fiscally stressed is 44.9. In addition to that, Beacon has consistently lowered its reliance on their fund balance. For 2016, Beacon has lowered its fund balance usage from $400,000 in 2015 to $247,000. This is something City Administrator Anthony Ruggiero believes is a huge benefit.
“It’s not relying on your fund balance or reserves that are there to assist municipalities and cities in case something drastic happens or, if there’s harsh economic times,” said Ruggiero. “So, you don’t really want to keep relying on your fund balance. I think that’s when city’s get into the fiscal stress and we haven’t been there.”
This is the fourth consecutive year Beacon has lowered its dependence on the fund balance. This year’s .73 percent tax cap has created an issue for many municipalities but, Beacon officials feel they’ve made the best of that difficult situation.
