Fredonia’s trustees plan a 2026-27 budget with a 4% tax increase, after their final meeting Wednesday about the proposal.

A proposal by Fire Chief Joshua Myers to cut $125,000 from his ambulance revenue projections was immediately set aside.

Erlyssa LeBeau, Fredonia’s treasurer and financial manager, warned soon after the meeting began that the cut — along with add-backs by the fire department and the Department of Public Works — would put the tax hike at 7%, and put the village at a negative fund balance of nearly $250,000.

“And we’d decided that’s unacceptable at that point,” said Mayor Michael Ferguson, whose initial budget proposal called for a 2% tax hike. LeBeau later said the village fund balance would be in positive territory under his proposal.

It was revealed the fire department called for a total of $30,000 added from Ferguson’s budget and DPW wanted $10,000 back. DPW’s requests were hardly discussed and apparently rejected, but the fire department requests came up for some debate.

Trustee Jon Espersen wound up wondering if Fredonia could do a 4% tax hike: the 2% in Ferguson’s budget, plus another 2% which is supposed to pump up the fund balance.

“How do you justify putting a percentage of that into revenue without balancing the budget first?” asked Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony.

Espersen asked to confirm that Ferguson’s original proposal was a balanced budget. Told that it was, he confirmed his suggestion, and trustees went along with it.

“Bottom line is, taxpayers are going to be upset, no matter what we do. Doesn’t matter if it’s 2%, doesn’t matter if it’s 20%,” Ferguson said. “Right now, with school taxes going up, all the other taxes going up around us, as well as cost of living, they’re going to be upset — and rightly so. But we have a fiduciary responsibility, one, to have the budget come in, but also, as per the comptrollers report to get our reserves up. If 4% does a little bit of both of that, I think that’s a fine place to settle it.”

The fire department originally requested two new sets of fire turnout gear for $12,000; Ferguson cut that to one set for $6,000. Lazarony thought Ferguson’s cut could be restored.

Stating that “I always make myself sound terrible,” Ferguson said “the reality is, only about 2% of monthly calls are for fire… the reality is, the bulk of the services coming out of the department right now are emergency/medical related.”

Espersen said that $6,000 was not enough to change the tax levy and said it should be put back in. Trustees agreed and the fire department will get two new sets of turnout gear.

Trustee Ben Brauchler suggested adding back $8,000 for building exhaust systems that can handle the fire department’s new trucks. His suggestion was taken.

The trustees uniformly rejected $18,000 more for a volunteer firefighter stipend line, but Lazarony talked of adding back a few thousand.

“Nickels, right? We’re talking nickels,” she said.

“We gotta be careful how many nickels we talk,” Brauchler replied.

The trustees eventually offered $2,000 more for the “vollies,” bringing additions for the fire department to $16,000.

LeBeau said the village would still have a balanced budget if it uses Ferguson’s initial proposal with the $16,000 in fire department add-backs, and a 4% tax hike.

With the 4% hike, the tax rate would go to $63.90 per $1,000 in assessed property. LeBeau said the village would end up with a projected positive fund balance of $113,340.