Bedford Budget Proposes Low Tax Rate Increase

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Bedford’s Town Board was putting finishing touches this week on a 2025 budget that promises the lowest tax-rate hike in years.

The $38.3 million spending plan calls for a 63-cent hike in the tax rate, to $42.75 for each $1,000 of assessed value. 

“We don’t expect the budget to change much from where we are now,” Comptroller Brian Kenneally said earlier this month in presenting the budget, his first here, to the Town Board. 

Saying the town was “in great financial shape,” Kenneally noted, “we’re well below the tax cap.”

As outlined at the board’s Nov. 7 meeting, the budget anticipates total spending next year of $38,391,406, an increase over this year’s of $1,198,341. That 3.22 percent increase in outlays would require a 2.77 percent hike in the total tax levy, 90 points below the 3.67 percent rise allowed by law.

Although state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in July had set 2 percent as the maximum year-over year increase in a municipality’s total tax levy in 2025, allowances for tax-base growth and other factors push up individual communities’ permitted percentage. In Bedford’s case, the potential increase was 3.67 percent.

A public hearing on the preliminary budget was scheduled for Nov. 19.

Supervisor Ellen Calves said, “We work hard at keeping services high and staying under the tax cap.”
A final budget could be adopted as early as the Town Board’s next meeting, Dec. 3. Under state law, the 2025 spending plan must be in place by Dec. 20.