Shelby faces 22% tax hike in town budget

Photos by Tom Rivers: Town of Shelby residents, Darlene Scharping (left) and Mike Zelazny both spoke during a public hearing on the Shelby town budget on Tuesday. They urged the Town Board to try to reduce a proposed tax increase. “We just pay, pay, pay and it’s not getting any better,” Scharping said.

SHELBY – Town of Shelby property owners will likely be facing a steep tax increase in their town taxes in 2027, Town Board members said during a public hearing on Tuesday about the preliminary budget which shows a 22 percent tax increase.

Town Supervisor Jim Heminway said the board has meticulously gone through the budget over nine meetings, and he doesn’t see any more significant cuts or revenue to whittle down the tax increase. The board will have another meeting before finalized the budget which must be done by Nov. 20. The final budget meeting date hasn’t been set yet.

Heminway said the town dwindled down its fund balance in the 2024 and 2025 budgets, leaving the board with little left to help offset taxes. With less fund balance and a $100,000 increase in an ambulance contract, Shelby has no choice but to raise taxes, Heminway said during the public hearing on Tuesday.

Town Supervisor Jim Heminway said town officials have worked diligently to try to reduce a tax hike in the 2027 budget.

“It’s a painful process but the numbers don’t lie,” Heminway said. “None of us wants to see the taxes go up. It means we have to pay more, too. Everyone sitting on this board is a taxpayer, too.”

Shelby’s preliminary budget sets spending at $2,483,643. That is up from the $2,271,132 in 2026, but also down significantly from the $2,732,759 in 2024 and $3,045,220 in 2025.

The town will be paying the Village of Medina an additional $100,000 in an ambulance contract for 2027 – from $35,000 to $135,000. Heminway said other increases – fuel, health insurance, utilities, salaries – are driving up the town’s budget.

Shelby has a much smaller fund balance, money that accumulated and was unspent. In 2024, the town used $917,939 in fund balance followed by $961,139 to offset property taxes. In 2026, the town was down to $241,000 in fund balance and next year’s budget would only utilize $150,000.

With less money in the bank with the fund balance, Heminway said the board needs to resort to property taxes to keep the roads maintained and plowed, the town hall functioning and other core duties of the town government.

The budget would increase the tax levy by 21.9 percent or by $241,960 – from $1,103,227 to $1,345,187.

Despite that increase, the tax rate will go down due to a big jump in tax assessments. The town’s overall assessed value increased by 32.2 percent or by $97.5 million from $302.2 million to $399.7 million. The assessments outside the village increased 39.6 percent or by $71.2 million from $179.8 million to $251.0 million.

The rate for village property owners in the town will drop from $2.24 per $1,000 of assessed property to $1.99, while the outside village rate will decrease from $4.61 per $1,000 to $4.19, according to the preliminary budget.

During the public hearing, two residents said they were concerned by the tax increase. Mike Zelazny and Darlene Scharping noted the significant hike.

Scharping said residents are feeling cost increases everywhere.

“We’re taxed too death,” she said. “We just pay, pay, pay and it’s not getting any better.”

Town Councilwoman Linda Limina said excessive use of the fund balance by board in 2024 and 2025 left the current board in a difficult position where a tax increase is unavoidable.

“We are now down to pretty much the bare minimum,” she said about the current budget. “And it’s getting expensive to run the bare minimum.”

Councilman Larry Waters said he and the board members have been diligent in reducing expenses in the 2027 budget.

“We went over every line, forwards and backwards,” he said. “We are really trying our very best.”

John Parada, a local resident, said he attended nearly all the budget workshops and has seen the board members agonize over the budget.

“They have cut as much as they could,” he said.