xCHAUTAUQUA – The town of Chautauqua is holding the line on the town tax rate, while increasing the overall levy.

During a recent town board meeting, officials approved its 2026 budget.

The overall spending plan is $5 million with the levy, the amount raised by taxes, will be $722,747.

Supervisor Don Emhardt said the levy increase was less than the 2% tax cap.

The town tax rate for 2026 will be 48 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, the same as this year.

Historically the town of Chautauqua has one of the lowest property tax rates in the state.

Emhardt said they have a number of water and sewer projects planned for 2026. Those projects are generally funded by users in each district, rather than by the general budget.

The town is doing some remodeling on its Chautauqua Municipal Building. There were some roof leaks that affected the Probation Department, which rents space at the municipal building.

Emhardt said they’ve repaired the roof and gone out to bid for the remodeling for probation as well as the Public Defender’s Office for Family Court.

Emhardt did say the newly established North Lake Fire District’s budget is going up 18%. He said the fire district sets its own rate. He did not know what the actual rate would be, nor why the fire district is increasing its budget by that amount.

The village of Mayville has more than $600,000 that it is trying to transfer to the newly established North Lake Fire District. The village is working with state Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Andrew Molitor to get permission from the state legislature to transfer the money.

The funds were left over in two different reserve funds when the Mayville Fire Department dissolved. Mayor Richard Syper said previously that a village can’t simply “give” a fire district money.