Town residents living outside the Village would face a tax rate increase of 29 percent, up to $2.81 per $1,000 assessed property value. For Chatham residents who live within the Village boundaries, the increase in the town tax rate is slightly less—4.5 percent, up to $1.65 per $1,000 assessed property value.

Overall spending in the budget would increase by 15.9 percent to $3.17 million, while the amount of that budget to be raised through property taxes increases 24 percent, up to $1.62 million.

A public hearing on the budget proposal is scheduled for Monday, starting at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall.

“We are facing a tough year,” said Supervisor Jesse DeGroodt on Friday. “I don't think the increase is going to change much from this point. We started with a 70 percent increase, and we were able to get it down to 55 percent, and now this. I don’t see much more room for change,” he said.

Driving up the costs is spending on the town’s roads. The highway budget has increased 33 percent, up to $1,409,338, largely as the result of increased fuel and supply costs. With 97 miles of road to maintain—57 miles of which are unpaved—the town has a significant inventory of roads to care for, DeGroodt said. In fact, the town has the second greatest number of road miles to maintain in its classification in the entire state.

“From the town’s perspective, when it snows, we want people to be able to get to work safely and to get there on time. Town Highway Superintendent Joe Rickert and his crew do a fantastic job of accomplishing that goal,” DeGroodt said. “In the days past, town highway crews were forced by financial constraints to wait until the storm was over before they started plowing.”

While fuel costs have dropped significantly in recent weeks, DeGroodt said he is not willing to reduce the fuel line in the town budget. “We budgeted what we thought was high last year, and we still ended up using $60,000 in fund balance this year to make up for a shortfall because of the fuel costs,” the supervisor said. “If I made cuts now, we could wind up in the same boat this year.” At this point, DeGroodt said, the only room for change in the budget is “to not plow the roads. But I don’t think we want to do that.”

BUDGET AT A GLANCE

Tentative town budget: $3,176,209, up 15.9 percent

Tentative tax levy: $1,624,752, up 24 percent

TAX RATES (tentative)

Town residents living outside the Village:  $2.81 per $1,000 assessed property value, up 29 percent

Town residents living inside the Village:  $1.65 per $1,000, up 14.5 percent