Former Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis.

It was former Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis’ turn this week to bash current village officials over their financial practices.

Landis said she was out of town for the hearings that produced a 2025-26 budget with an approximately 60% tax hike. She was evidently disgusted by what she observed from afar.

“Let me be as blunt as you know I can be,” Landis began her comments at a Board of Trustees meeting. “If I ever had to propose a 55% tax increase (the number in Mayor Michael Ferguson’s initial proposal) or vote to approve such an increase, knowing that the village has a poverty rate of over 21%, I would have resigned. But that’s just me.

“You, on the other hand, took a different route. Instead of assuming responsibility for what you have done, you decided to blame previous administrations for not raising taxes,” the ex-mayor continued. “Let’s put that theory to rest. To begin with, taxes were raised for all five previous years. This one will be the sixth.”

Landis said she “never proposed a tax increase, mainly because it was not needed. At the time, our fund balance was over 25%, which is more than the state recommends. I also knew that overtaxing the people without using the money you collected can be regarded as mismanagement, especially when you apply for a grant.”

Landis stated the village opened 2024 with a $766,000 fund balance but later had to borrow $825,000. “In plain English, you overspent your budget by at least $1.3 million, maybe as much as $1.9 (million). The reason you’re raising taxes is not that the previous administrations did not. It’s because you spent … more than you should have.”

She continued that she would have to pay $875 extra this year in taxes. “What am I gonna get for this money? I just want to know. It’s a lot of money.”

The 2025-26 budget “is not a budget, these are numbers thrown on a piece of paper. … Whatever it is, it’s still unsustainable. You increased the spending in the general (fund) by 15% this year. You have zero fund balance — zero. That never happened before. And it’s more than obvious that you will still have to borrow money next year and you will still have to raise taxes next year.”

Landis concluded that the village is on a path to bankruptcy and questioned if it was being done deliberately.