08/31/2026
As we continue working through the Town of Ogden's 2027 budget, I want to explain an important step in that process and, more importantly, some of the numbers behind it.
On Wednesday, September 9 at 7:00 p.m., the Town Board will hold a previously advertised public hearing regarding a resolution that would authorize the Town to exceed New York State's property tax cap if ultimately necessary.
First, I want to be very clear:
Holding this hearing does NOT mean the Town will ultimately exceed the tax cap.
We are still building the budget, looking for efficiencies and doing everything we can to control costs. But if exceeding the cap needs to be considered, I believe residents deserve to understand why we're having that conversation.
For Ogden, the additional tax levy available within our tax cap is approximately $180,000.
That sounds like a lot of money until you consider what it has to cover.
From 2025 to 2026, the Town's health-insurance costs increased approximately $139,000.
Our required NYS retirement costs increased another $145,934 — a 16% increase.
Combined, those two expenses alone increased approximately $285,000 in a single year.
That's roughly $105,000 MORE than the entire $180,000 of additional levy capacity we're discussing today.
And that's before salaries, fuel, utilities, road materials, equipment, emergency services, the Library or virtually anything else necessary to operate the Town.
These weren't new programs, trucks or amenities.
They were health insurance and retirement costs associated with the workforce we already had.
And this isn't unique to Ogden.
The New York State Comptroller recently reported that 28.6% of towns statewide indicated plans to override the tax cap for 2026, up from 16.6% in 2022.
With 933 towns across New York, that's the equivalent of roughly 267 towns.
More importantly, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli explained why:
“Many local governments are under fiscal pressure, with rising costs and slower growth in recurring revenues.”
His office pointed to declining pandemic-era federal assistance, moderating sales-tax growth and inflation exceeding the 2% cap as contributing factors.
In other words, the Comptroller isn't pointing to hundreds of towns suddenly becoming wasteful. He's pointing to mounting fiscal pressure.
The New York Association of Towns (NYAOT) has been raising the same concerns.
NYAOT reports that towns operate with the narrowest and least diversified revenue base of any general-purpose local government in New York. Approximately 45% of town revenue statewide comes from property taxes, while state aid represents only about 4%.
When inflation, labor, insurance, infrastructure and compliance costs rise, towns simply don't have a broad array of alternative revenue sources to absorb them.
That describes the challenge we're facing remarkably well.
Percentages can also be deceiving. Dollars buy things.
A 2% increase means something very different depending on the size of the budget it's applied to.
But the things we purchase don't cost Ogden less because we're a smaller government.
A Ford Explorer, construction equipment, an HVAC system, health insurance or a ton of road salt costs essentially the same regardless of which level of government is purchasing it.
We all buy things in essentially the same marketplace.
Consider a few real examples:
Monroe County's 2026 budget increased 1.9% — but that represented approximately $29.7 million in additional spending. More telling, its underlying operating costs increased $52.8 million, including significant increases in salaries, retirement and health insurance.
Spencerport Central School District's revised and voter-approved 2026-27 budget calls for a 2.8% property-tax levy increase — approximately $1.25 million in additional levy dollars — while remaining below its calculated maximum allowable levy of 5%.
And New York State's enacted 2027 budget is approximately $277 BILLION — an increase of 7%.
I'm not pointing to any of these numbers to criticize the County, School District or State for having increased expenses.
That's actually the point.
They're confronting the same marketplace we are.
Health insurance isn't increasing 2%. Retirement didn't increase 2%. Vehicles and construction materials aren't increasing 2%.
Yet for Ogden, we're talking about approximately $180,000 in additional levy capacity to absorb increases across an entire Town government.
Two percent doesn't buy every government the same amount of government.
The formula matters, too.
While the Town doesn't manage the Ogden Farmers' Library or employ its staff, we provide the overwhelming majority of its operating funding, and that funding counts within Ogden's tax-cap calculation.
The Library's initial budget request this year represented an increase of more than 5% as it confronts many of the same rising personnel, benefit and operating costs we do. Those increases consume part of the same approximately $180,000 available to the Town.
EMS costs count against the municipal cap as well. In 2025, legislation passed both houses of the State Legislature that would have excluded EMS expenditures from the municipal tax-cap calculation, but it was vetoed by Governor Hochul.
NYAOT continues advocating for reforms that would exclude EMS, infrastructure costs and special-district spending from the municipal tax cap.
There's also an important difference with school districts.
While 28.6% of towns reported plans to override their caps, only 4.9% of school districts did.
There are several reasons for that difference, but qualifying school capital expenditures can be excluded from the school tax-cap calculation. Town infrastructure generally doesn't receive comparable treatment.
NYAOT has specifically identified that inequity and advocated for reform.
Same marketplace. Same price. Different treatment under the tax cap.
I want to make something else clear: I still believe in the principle behind the tax cap.
Government should constantly look for efficiencies, question expenses, prioritize needs and remember that every dollar we spend ultimately belongs to the taxpayers.
And that's exactly what we've tried to do in Ogden.
We've worked to do more with less while expanding services, adding amenities and strengthening our ability to compete for outside grant funding.
We've also aggressively pursued shared services and cost-sharing partnerships. In 2025 and 2026 alone, we've entered into or expanded partnerships with the Village of Spencerport, Spencerport Central School District, Town of Gates, Town of Parma, Spencerport Fire District, Gates Ambulance District and Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, just to name a few.
Every dollar we save through collaboration, every grant dollar we bring home and every efficiency we find is a dollar we don't have to ask our property taxpayers to provide.
That's what “sharpening our pencils” should mean.
But fiscal responsibility also means being honest when the math doesn't work.
When approximately $180,000 represents the additional levy available within our tax cap, and just last year health insurance and retirement alone increased approximately $285,000, we have an obligation to discuss what that means openly.
Interestingly enough, that's exactly what Comptroller DiNapoli recently asked local officials to do:
“I urge local officials to communicate with the public and be transparent about their fiscal challenges and plans for addressing them.”
That's why I'm sharing this information.
And that's why we're having the public hearing.
It isn't a declaration that Ogden will exceed the tax cap. It preserves that option while we continue the difficult work of building a responsible budget — publicly and transparently.
Most importantly, it's an opportunity for you to be part of that process.
The public hearing will take place Wednesday, September 9 at 7:00 p.m.
We'll continue looking for every reasonable efficiency we can find because ultimately we have two responsibilities:
Protecting the services our community depends upon while respecting the taxpayers who pay for them.
