The North Elba Town Hall (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

LAKE PLACID — The town of North Elba’s preliminary 2020 budget, if adopted, would come below the state tax cap.

General fund expenses would increase by $124,855, from $3,244,564 this year to $3,369,419 next year, according to a budget summary provided by the town. A copy of the full preliminary budget was not made available to the Enterprise by press time.

The town plans to pay those expenses using more than $1.3 million in property tax revenue, an increase of $68,119, or 5.3%. The rest will come from revenue generated through things like fees, fines and licenses, and $328,752 from the town’s reserves, an increase of 18% over this year.

Expenses for general and highway operations outside the village of Lake Placid are expected to decrease by a combined $104,221, according to the town’s budget summary. The tax levy to fund those operations would decrease, too — by approximately $106,300, if the town uses $207,405 from its reserves to bridge the gap between expenses and a projected $165,326 decline in revenue.

Park district revenue is projected to increase by $16,572, but a tax levy increase of $39,527 is planned to fund the expected $56,099 increase in expenses for the district. That increase in expenses is fueled in part by new equipment purchases the town has planned, including a pickup truck for the show grounds and a replacement Polaris snowblower for use on Mirror Lake, according to the budget summary.

A public hearing on the town’s preliminary 2020 budget is scheduled for tonight, Nov. 12 at 6:50 p.m., just before the start of the town board’s regular meeting. Three other public hearings are scheduled for tonight at the North Elba Town Hall: one on the town’s contracts with the Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department and Saranac Lake Rescue Squad at 6:30 p.m., one on the town’s franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable Northeast LLC (Spectrum) at 6:40 p.m., and another regarding the assessment roll for the Ray Brook water/sewer district at 6:45 p.m.