By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON – Fire and emergency services in the Town of Canton will be getting a 2.5 percent increase next year despite a drop in sales tax revenue this year.

The town board last week passed a slightly smaller budget for 2017 of $2,754,910, $5,554 less than the 2016 spending plan of $2,760,464, a decrease of 0.02 percent.

The tax levy, the amount to be raised by the town through property taxes, increases by 2 percent, from $1,197,025 for 2016 to $1,222,499 for 2017. That is “right at but not exceeding the tax cap level,” Supervisor David Button said.

The tax rate is increasing from $2.50 per thousand dollars of assessed value to $2.55, which will cost the owner of property assessed at $100,000 five dollars more for the year.

Sales tax revenue for 2016 is down by about 1.8 percent, which amounts to about $14,000 less for the year, “but we had authorized a net increase in the 2016 budget, so the net difference amounts to about $30,000” between what was anticipated and what they actually got, Button said.

“That forces us to sharpen our pencil that much more and focus on priority issues,” the supervisor said.

Employees are getting a planned 2.5 percent pay increase. Some employees actually said they would forgo the increase, but the board decided to give everyone the same raise, with one exception. Justice Clerk Marc Armstrong, it was discovered, had an employee package “that was a little lower than the average of the market. It’s now in line with other people doing similar work,” up 7.5 percent, Button said.

He pointed out that that is still less than the cost of the two clerks that were working for the court in 2012.

Asked about the largest increases in the budget, Button said “there were no real outliers in this budget. We continue to increase our commitment to the emergency services, which are up 2.5 percent this year.”

Road work also remains a priority, Button said, and he anticipates continuing to get the highway money boost from the state’s Pave NY program and to take advantage of the low asphalt prices that have prevailed since oil prices declined.

“We’ll do as much as we can until the prices start picking up again,” he said.