The Batavia Town Board is gearing up for the possibility of some public comments by testing their Zoom videoconferencing capability.
Following Wednesday night’s monthly board meeting at the Town Hall of West Main Street Road, Supervisor Gregory Post, Deputy Supervisor Dan Underhill and Council members Patti Michalak, Sharon White and Chad Zambito worked with Clerk Teressa Morasco to get their laptops in sync in case they have to add a remote component to the public hearing on the 2021 budget.
The public hearing on the $5,101,886 preliminary spending plan (which includes the highway fund) is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Town Hall, unless the board changes the location due to COVID-19-mandated occupancy restrictions.
As reported first on The Batavian last week, the board raised the allocation of its unexpended fund balance to balance the 2021 budget from $135,899 to $552,358 after receiving news that Genesee County authorized a final $1 million revenue distribution payment for 2020 and pledged about $1.7 million for 2021.
Thus, town residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on a general fund budget that calls for a tax levy of $1,236,000 and a property tax rate increase of 40 cents (16.4 percent) from $2.45 per thousand of assessed value to $2.85 per thousand of assessed value.
That’s an easier pill to swallow than the 88- or 89-cent increase that came up during previous budget discussions.
Breaking down the general fund, appropriations are $4,068,163 and the estimated revenue is $2,279,805. The highway fund adds another $1,033,723 in appropriations, equaling the estimated revenue.
Add in the special districts (sewer, water districts combined and fire) and the total budget comes to $11,837,477, with an estimated revenue of $8,548,384 and tax levy of $2,736,735.
The town's volunteer fire department budget of $1,086,528 is achieved totally through property taxes.
The preliminary budget also sets public officials’ salaries as follows:
Supervisor, $40,000; Deputy Supervisor, $18,000; Council members (three), $10,000; Town Clerk/Tax Collector, $72,370; Highway Superintendent, $19,707; Town Justices (two), $28,000.
Post said he wasn’t sure how many residents would attend the public hearings, but wanted to be prepared in case more than 25 show up. He also mentioned the county’s announcement of a 31-cent property tax decrease for 2021 and the fact that the town/county tax rate combined was increasing by only 9 cents.
The budget public session will follow a 7 p.m. public hearing on the sewer rate for District No. 1 and District No. 2 in the town, and a 7:05 p.m. public hearing on the water rates.
The town’s proposed sewer rate for the period of May 2021 to February 2022 is staying the same at $7.09 per thousand gallons while the proposed water rates for the same period are at $6.20 per thousand gallons for the base rate – a 3.4-percent decrease -- and $5.02 per thousand gallons for the agricultural rate – a 1.6-percent decrease.
A special meeting to adopt the budget, and the sewer and water rates is set for Nov. 5 at the Town Hall.
In other action, the board:
- Approved a resolution for a solar energy system decommissioning agreement for a 8.99-megawatt, 20.45-acre ground-mounted solar farm at 5230 Batavia-Stafford Townline Road.
Filing of the decommissioning bond is part of the process to obtain a special use permit from the Town of Batavia Planning Board.
The town calls for decommissioning bonds for solar farms because “should the company go under (in this case, Borrego Solar System LLC, of Lowell, Mass.), we don’t want a bunch of solar panels sitting on 20 acres of land,” Post said.
The solar project, which first came before town planners in August 2019, is slated to be placed on a 52-acre parcel, featuring 43,355 solar panels in a fenced-in area of 19.94 acres with an additional half acre to be used for an access driveway. It also will include four utility poles.
- Approved a resolution adopting Local Law No. 3 of 2020 to override the state tax cap for fiscal year 2021, something that the town has done for several years.
“This authorizes us to fund operations to the degree we need to fund them with local money when we don’t get state money,” Post said.
- Approved levying unpaid water and sewer charges against property owners’ 2021 tax warrants. As of Monday, more than $146,000 is owed to the town in overdue water and sewer bills.
