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Village of Lansing Trustees voted Monday to override the state-imposed tax cap, and approved a $2.7 million budget that will be 2.4% less than last year's budget.  This will be the third year the Village has exceeded the tax cap, which, in a way, is itself the reason for the increased tax rate that will be 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value more than last year's tax bill.  Mayor Donald Hartill said that the Village assessment went up this year, which may also impact the final tax rate.

"We're raising it by ten cents per $1,000," Hartill said. "The proposed tax rate will be $1.40 as opposed it's current $1.30.  Our assessment went up a little bit, so the levy is actually more than that.  It's a crazy rule - if your assessment goes up it's the total levy that's controlled.  You could be faced with having to lower the tax rate to satisfy that levy."

The most significant change in the next fiscal year's budget is a 3% raise for all Village employees, not counting elected officials whose stipends remain the same.  The $2,7000,881 budget is less than last year's $2,767,333 largely because of road work.  Last year the Village spent around $800,000 to resurface Triphammer Road, an expense the municipality will not have this year.

"It's usually driven by the roads," Hartill explained. "We have 18 miles of road that last about ten years, so we have to rebuild about two miles of road every year.  Road maintenance is by far the biggest expense."

Municipalities typically vote to override the tax cap in case they need more income in a particular year.  The Town of Lansing has regularly overridden the cap, but then reestablished it after determining their levy would remain below the state mandate.  Last year Hartill said the Village would gradually raise taxes to make up for what was too steep a reduction in 2011 in response to capital reserves having too much money in them.  He said that the establishment of the state tax cap made it impossible to reasonably recover from that much of a dip.  At that time he said that the gradual rises would keep reserves from becoming depleted.

The tax cap, if not overridden would restrict the Village to collecting $663,017 for its 2018-19 budget.  The approved budget calls for the municipality to collect $700,042 in taxes, $37,025 more than the state would have allowed.

"We're raising it by probably twice that limit," Hartill said.

For Village taxpayers that means they will be paying $1.40 per $1,000, a dime more than last year's tax rate.  The total levy will be $666,809, up from $602,128.  Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) agreement revenues will be lower this year, in part because of a reduction in the value of the Shops At Ithaca Mall.  Last year's PILOT income was $28,060.  This year it will be $22,319.  The overall sewer assessment on taxes will also be slightly lower in the Village this year.

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