BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — The preliminary Potsdam town budget for 2024 will feature a $334,202.93 increase in the tax levy for the general fund compared to the current year.

General fund tax rate per $1,000 of assessed property value is due to increase from 1.58 to 2.06 percent.

The town’s tax base for the general fund is calculated at $585,804,841.

The town board approved the preliminary budget for the general fund, highway funds, and special districts at a budget meeting Oct. 16. Only three board members attended the meeting and voted on the 2024 budget, Town Supervisor Ann Carvill, Deputy Supervisor Marty Miller and Town Councilwoman Allyssa Hardiman. Town Councilwomen Lynn Hall and Toni Kennedy did not attend the meeting.

The board has set a public hearing on the budget on Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m. The board is expected to adopt the budget as official following the hearing

Total general fund appropriations in 2024 will be $1,995,356.21, a hike from the $1,635,723.28 in the current year.

Major increases in the general fund include around $20,000 for employee health insurance, $29,000 for new municipal software, $25,000 for grant writing under special items, $200,000 for a planned town wide revaluation on tax assessments, and a $90,000 for legal fees connected with expected lawsuits under the Appraisals Article 7 line item under Attorney expenses.

“That’s because most other years we did not put that much in because cases weren’t ready to move against us, and now they are, and they are going on and that money needs to be there, so that’s a notable jump,” Town Supervisor Ann Carvill said at the meeting.

One of the only notable decreases in the general fund budget includes a drop in compensated absences under employee benefits from $30,000 in the current year to zero 2024. The decrease represents the town placing the current year’s unused portion of that line item in an appropriated fund for future use.

Another decrease is planned in the town supervisor’s salary from just over $40,000 in the current year to $20,000 in 2024.

At the Oct. 16 meeting, Miller, who is running for the supervisor’s seat in November on the eve of the departure of the current supervisor, Ann Carvill, has pushed for the decrease in the supervisor salary.

Miller pointed out that when he was first elected to the board in the 2019 election, the salary was only around $17,000 a year.

Besides taxes, the 2024 budget accounts for $785,700 in incoming revenues compared to $760,270 in the current year. The amount reflects a jump of $49,000 in county-redistributed sales tax and a decrease of $35,000 in expected justice court fees.

Other funds

Besides the general fund the 2024 preliminary budget for the Town of Potsdam also includes:

• Town outside budget with appropriations of $206,317.79 planned in 2024 versus $200,461.93 in the current year. This budget amount is to be covered completely by incoming revenues not taxes.

• The fire contracts special districts budget at $363,400 versus $345,550 in the current year. This budget accounts for $145,400 to be allotted to the Potsdam Fire Department, $8,000 for Hannawa, $120,000 for West Potsdam and $90,000 for Norwood. All of the budget is to be covered by taxes, with the tax rate increasing to 1.126 percent per $1,000 in 2024 versus 1.077 in the current year.

• Lighting districts in Hewittville and Sissonville, with total appropriations the same as last year at $3,390. The budget is covered by taxes paid by the district residents.

• Highway DA with total appropriations at $1,076,850.51, an increase over the current year’s amount of $1,058,988. The highway DA budget is to be covered by $81,000 in revenues and $995,850.51 in tax levy in 2024, a jump of over $20,000 from the current year. The 2024 tax rate of Highway DA is up at 1.76 percent per $1,000 versus the current year at 1.67.

• Highway DB in 2024 is also higher with total appropriations at $1,371,091.53 compared to $1,327,931.79 in 2023. This budget is to be covered by incoming revenues not tax levy, notably by nearly $900,000 in county sales tax redistribution and almost $400,000 in state aid.

• Sewer with total appropriations at $33,402.06 in 2024 over the $32,402.06 in the current year. The amount is to be covered by $13,440 in revenues and $19,962.06. The tax rate on the sewer district residents is down to 7.34 percet per $1,000 versus 7.67 in 2023.

• Water with total appropriations at $25,500 to be covered by $5,900 in revenues and $19,600 to be raised by taxes. The tax rate in 2024 for district residents is down to 7.01 percent in 2024 compared to 7.09 in the current year.

• Finally, the 2024 fiscal plan includes budgets for the Route 56 water and sewer districts currently under development. Both the water and sewer districts each call for $25,710 in appropriations to be covered by debt service payments from the town’s financing arrangement, not taxes.