2023 Budget and Capital Plan Approved

2023 Town Budget

After the public hearing on Tuesday evening, the 2023 Town Budget was unanimously adopted by the Town Board. Many months of public meetings, going over every line item with department heads, and considering projected increases, we landed on a budget that will enable us to deliver a high level of services to our residents and stay under the tax cap. Much appreciation goes to Comptroller Abraham Zambrano for his diligent work, projections, and preparation of the preliminary and final budgets.

As the Comptroller explains in the budget message, total appropriations for all funds total $44,175,478. The tax increase will be a 2.69% increase over the 2022 rate, enabling the town to raise and allocate funds to continue to provide public safety, services, and maintenance as well as meet contractual labor and health benefit increases, rising costs of fuel, utilities, and materials, and invest in some new full-time positions and part-time staff to help with workloads and set our departments up for long term success. We also were able to increase funding to all three libraries.

2023 Capital Plan

My colleagues and I also approved the 2023 Capital Plan which itemizes 25 projects totaling $2,449,500 that the town intends to issue bonds for in the coming year. The plan identifies equipment and infrastructure projects including, among other things:

• the purchase of green parks equipment to continue to support our emissions reduction goals,
• funding for an engineering and design work to extend the Bedford Hills walking path along Route 117 to Katonah,
• funding for Hamlet Improvements, the Huntville Sidewalk replacement,
• the reconfiguration of the Harris-Babbitt intersection and sidewalk extension,
• digitization of planning department documents,
• improvements to bath houses,
• traffic safety measures
• tree removal and planting
• and more

The 2023 Capital Plan will require less borrowing than previous years because some projects from prior years are still on the docket due to COVID and supply chain delays. Also, interest rates are not as low as they have been in the past. This plan will enable us to catch up as well as stay on track with equipment and infrastructure upgrades with prudent financial management.