OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Silver Creek Mayor Jeff Hornburg presented highlights from the newly adopted Village Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The budget shows a slight increase in taxes.

SILVER CREEK — After nearly a decade of reduced taxes, the village of Silver Creek has adopted a budget that shows a small increase to the tax rate.

The village adopted its budget for the upcoming fiscal year at a recent Village Board special meeting. The budget, beginning June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025, is highlighted by a general fund tax levy of $1,061,471. Despite the slight increase — of less than 1 percent of the overall budget – the Village stayed under the tax cap by $18,478.

As part of the budget, the village is asking for an increase in taxes of 21 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The increase is less than 1 percent of the overall figure, at a tax rate of 13.11 per thousand. The previous rate was 12.90 per thousand, and rates previously dropped slightly each year since 2015. The total village assessment is $80,949,112, which is an increase of $496,484 from the previous year.

The total General Fund budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $2,499,781 (an increase of 0.79%), while the Water Fund budget is $954,430 and the Sewer Fund budget is $704,201. The Water and Sewer funds do not include any money from the Village tax levy.

Several items in the budget increased from the previous year. Most notably, the total amount dedicated to Public Safety is $956,852, which is up from last year’s figure of $813,113. Contractual expenses from the Enhanced Police Protection contract accounted for an increase of $10,000 to the budget.

The Emergency Medical Services Department shows an increase from $437,500 in last year’s budget to a budgeted amount in 2024-25 of $578,360. An additional $75,000 has been added to increase the Emergency Squad services, which now has $275,000 allocated from the Village.

Independent auditing and accounting costs increased from $12,000 in 2023-24 to $40,000 in 2024-25. Garbage pickup is up $20,000 through contractual costs. Source of supply and power costs are up nearly $11,000.

Village Board member salaries will not increase in the upcoming year. The Board passed the budget without opposition, with Trustee Marv Cummings absent from the meeting, but every other member of the Board voting in its favor.