By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- The town board unanimously voted against giving themselves a $1,000 raise on Wednesday night.

They will make $5,000 per year.

The motion also gave Town Clerk Georgette Davis a 2 percent raise, for a salary of $40,944. For her service as registrar of vital statistics, she will receive $8,000. She was paid $5,834.81 last year.

Town bookkeeper Nancy Fregoe said the taxpayers shouldn’t feel the changes.

“I don’t see it changing [the tax rate] at all,” she said.

“You’re talking about a couple thousand [dollar increase] on a couple million [dollar total budget],” Councilman John Macaulay added.

The town will re-negotiate the contract with the Massena fire department next week. Last year’s carried a $79,000 price tag; they have requested an additional $32,000 to get new thermal imaging equipment and digital radios.

The preliminary budget doesn’t show any change in funding over the tentative spending plan for several groups that had requested extra.

The 2014 budget that calls for a 5-percent reduction to the village tax rate and a 14-percent reduction to the town tax rate. A $50,000 piece of property in the village will be taxed $211.50 – which is $19.80 less than last year; a $100,000 piece of property in the town will be taxed $423 – a $67.50 decrease over last year. Overall, the town would levy $230,567.17 less than last year.

The town will spend a total of $17,701,509 on the general, highway and library funds, as well as fire protection and the water and sewer districts under the preliminary spending blueprint. Taxes will raise $2,412,844.72 of that.

The board will hold a public hearing on Nov. 6 at 5:30 p.m. for the fire contract and the overall budget. They will vote to adopt a final budget on Nov. 20.