Medina village officials determined to bring down tax increase

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 April 2024 at 8:38 am

‘Wish list’ budget would raise taxes 35 percent

MEDINA – The Village Board held a public hearing on Monday for the 2024-25 village budget that would raise taxes 34.9 percent, an amount that will surely be significantly reduced by the end of the month, Mayor Marguerite Sherman said.

The numbers presented on Monday are what department heads submitted for their budgets in a “wish list” before there has been any paring down. Sherman, the new Medina mayor, said the board will be scrutinizing the numbers with department leaders in several upcoming meetings.

“It’s going to be a lot lower than this,” Sherman responded during a public hearing about the budget on Monday. “When I saw that my jaw dropped.”

The board has several budget meetings with department heads this month. The budget needs to be adopted by April 30.

The numbers so far show the tax levy increasing by 34.9 percent or $1,320,759 – from $3,786,974 in 2023-24 to $5,107,733.

The current budget for 2023-24 represented a 14.9 percent tax levy increase, and the tax rate went from $18.85 to $21.15 per $1,000 of assessed property.

Medina will see a major boost in its tax base in the new budget for 2024-25 following town-wide reassessments in Shelby and Ridgeway. The village’s tax base grew by 56.1 percent or $100.5 million – from $179.0 million to $279.5 million.

Because of the big jump assessments, the tax rate will be going down from the $21.15. The budget, as it stands now, would have a rate of $18.27. But Sherman said that will come down more after the board and department heads work to reduce expenses.

“This is only preliminary,” Sherman said about the budget numbers. “We will go line item by line item to get the budget down.”

The preliminary budget calls for $8,298,364 in expenses in the general funds, up $705,068 from $7,593,296 in 2023-24.

The sewer fund is tentatively slated to increase from $1,296,011 to $1,384,428, and the water fund would go from $2,019,651 to $2,056,647.

The 2024-25 budget does not include the debt service payments for a new ladder truck or an addition to the fire hall, which will be in the general fund in the future.

The ladder truck payment is expected to start in the 2025-26 budget and will be the first of $159,000 annually over 20 years for the ladder truck. The fire hall addition will likely cost even more for the village.

The big jump in taxes in 2023-24 followed several years of small increases. Here are the recent tax levy amounts and tax rates for the village budget: