Fredonia’s proposed tax hike is at 9.25% and recreation programs will remain in place this year.

Village trustees finalized a 2024-25 budget proposal Wednesday morning. They could have hacked the tax hike down to 4.8%, but ended up adding a police officer position, allowing an open fire department position to get filled, and keeping a fire department clerk.

After Trustee Nicole Siracuse got confirmation that all department heads will get 3% raises, Mayor Michael Ferguson reported the restoration of all recreation department funds.

“We put everything back for one year, as is, with review with not only the new rec director, but also consulting with counselors and staff, getting history, and putting together a plan for next year,” the mayor said.

Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau said the village just received a federal grant that will help it buy a truck, saving roughly the same amount of money needed to fund the recreation programs.

Trustee Jon Espersen said that if the fire department does not hire a replacement for someone who retired last year, and lets a clerk go, the tax hike would be 4%. Siracuse responded, referencing the proposed move of code enforcement to fire department oversight: “I think we have to do that hire, because once the code enforcement change happens, that person is no longer operational for day to day, so now they’re down a guy.”

Trustees, including Espersen, had no appetite for cutting the clerk. LeBeau said keeping the clerk but not filling the open position would get the tax hike to 4.8%.

Espersen said the fire department has already been doing without the open position for months, and overtime pay for firefighters to pick up the slack is already budgeted.

Ferguson made a side comment blasting the village’s previous practice of putting together budgets based on forecasted billing.

“That is a foolish and terrible way to build a budget,” he said. “You build your budget at zero base and work back from there. I can say we’re going to bring in $3 million in DPW this year, but if the reality is the DPW — and I’m just pulling numbers out of the hat — is only bringing in $50,000 a year, you’ve blown your budget out of the water.”

The mayor said the tax hike of nearly 19% in his proposed budget happened because “we started at what was actually real, projected numbers to come into.”

Ferguson added, “I don’t think 4.8% is out of the realm of reality.” The mayor praised department heads for making cuts that, he said, put their departments right on the edge of losing effectiveness.

Trustees eventually decided to keep both the firefighter and the clerk positions, bringing the tax hike to 6.19%, as per LeBeau.

Trustee Michelle Twichell said she was unhappy with the proposed code enforcement change, adding, “We’re giving the fire department far more than anyone else. I would rather hire another policeman.”

LeBeau was asked to calculate what adding a police officer would bring the tax hike to. She came back with 9.25%.

Police Chief David Price said an extra officer would help him immensely with scheduling, and possibly avoiding overtime. Espersen said the 3% added back to the tax hike “would be well worth it.”

Trustees scheduled a public hearing on the budget for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will come right after another hearing on the trustees’ plan to override the state 3% property tax cap. That hearing starts at 7 p.m.