When Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson presented his tentative budget last month, he offered few details. A reason for that has become clear: Village property owners could be staring at a sizable tax increase.

Ferguson acknowledged at Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting that the budget currently calls for a nearly 19% tax hike.

“Yes, we are at 18.91% based on the budget we have before us,” he said. “There’s nobody saying that’s where we’re going to end up. This is a starting point — we’ll leave it at that.”

Trustees agreed to hold the legally required public budget hearing on April 15 at 6:30 p.m., prior to their next regularly scheduled meeting.

The tentative budget will be on file at Village Clerk Annemarie Johnston’s office Monday. Village officials have not yet completed workshops on the budget; they held three last week.

At the first workshop, held March 25, Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau recited an executive summary of the budget.

She said property taxes would go up to $45.57 per $1,000 of assessed property, if the 18.91% hike held.

“The budget assumes certain increases in employee wages, and 3% increases for department heads,” LeBeau said. It also assumes that both health and general liability insurance will go up 5%.

The village’s water fund has a $321,484 hike in appropriations but has a projected operating loss of $325,831. Water rates are unchanged at $6.95 per 1,000 gallons; trustees recently approved a hike to that figure.

Ferguson said, “Every community thus far that has begun their budget process has talked about budget tightening and belt tightening. Fredonia will be no different… We are here today because of things that have been either overlooked or neglected in the last few years, and the fear of raising taxes. No one wants to raise taxes, but unfortunately, it’s become a necessity in today’s world.”

Ferguson then vowed that neither he nor Trustees would ask for pay raises in the budget.

LeBeau said the state’s cap on property hikes is 3.1%. A local law would be needed to go above it.