SARANAC LAKE — The village of Saranac Lake is considering a $7.3 million tentative budget for the coming year. The budget would meet the tax cap and include no changes to water and sewer rates.

The village has called for a public hearing on the tentative budget on April 15 at 5:30 p.m. in the village board room in the Harrietstown Town Hall. The tentative budget can be found at tinyurl.com/3r8xj228.

Village Manager Bachana Tsiklauri said he and village Treasurer Patrick Murphy met with department heads at the start of the year, as well as elected officials. It took a lot of long nights for them to assemble the budget, but Tsiklauri said it is an important document that will impact life in the village for the next year.

The village is proposing to spend $7.3 million, $995,773 more than this past fiscal year.

To pay for this, the tentative budget currently calls for the village to collect, or levy, $4,453,928 from taxpayers, a $116,956 increase from the current budget year and the maximum amount this figure can go up without going over the state-imposed tax cap. The tax cap this year was set at 2.33%, Tsiklauri said — the state base of 2% plus a growth percentage of 0.33%. Going over this cap would require a vote by the village board.

Tsiklauri said he expects the budget to stay at the cap and for the tax rate to stay the same throughout the budget process from here on out. Those numbers are not likely to change, he said. Most of the work now is deciding how the money the village is planning to spend should be allocated.

The village is expecting to earn $1,988,976 in revenue this year, $239,240 more than was anticipated the previous year. Around half of this increase is expected to come from a new $100,000 in tax revenue from cannabis sales in the village. The Elevate ADK dispensary became the first state-licensed dispensary in the Tri-Lakes in October.

The budget calls for the village to pull $1,121,326 from its fund balance, $630,948 more than the last budget called for. Tsiklauri said there is $4 million in the general fund balance currently.

Including the village’s $2.26 million water budget and $2.69 million sewer budget, the total village spending for the next fiscal year would be $12.26 million. There are no projected changes to the water or sewer rates this year. Tsiklauri said the village has been earning “hefty” interest on money it keeps in the bank for water and sewer — enough to cover cost increases to those departments this year.

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Tax rate

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The village sits inside three towns. The tax rates in each town are different because each town assesses properties differently. To ensure that each town’s taxpayers pay their fair share in taxes, the state has something called an equalization rate, which equalizes each towns’ assessments to full market value to make up for any differences in how properties are assessed.

Harrietstown has an equalization rate of 73% and St. Armand has an equalization rate of 90% because they are under-assessed, according to the state. North Elba is assessed at 100%.

Residents who live in the Harrietstown part of Saranac Lake would pay $13.83 per $1,000 of assessed property value under the proposed budget, a $0.35 — or 2.62% — increase per $1,000 from the current fiscal year.

Someone who owns a $300,000 house in the Harrietstown part of Saranac Lake would pay $4,149.27 in village taxes, $106.05 more than last year.

Residents in the North Elba part of Saranac Lake would pay $10.10 per $1,000 of assessed property value, a $1.22 — or 10.82% — decrease per $1,000.

Someone who owns a $300,000 house in the North Elba part of Saranac Lake would pay $3,028.98 in village taxes, $367.32 less than last year.

Residents in the St. Armand part of Saranac Lake would pay $11.22 per $1,000 of assessed property value, a $0.10 — or 0.91% — decrease per $1,000.

Someone who owns a $300,000 house in the St. Armand part of Saranac Lake would pay $3,365.52 in village taxes, $30.78 less than last year.

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Changes made

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On Monday, the village board had its first meeting to discuss the budget.

The board agreed to cut $10,000 from its pilot rideshare program, which subsidizes rideshare fares for qualified people. Bachana said the village has used $2,000 from the $20,000 fund created last year and $18,000 carried over to this year, so more money wasn’t needed.

The board agreed to cut $30,000 for Garwood Park playground equipment for two reasons: No one knew what is needed at the park yet and two parks department employees will be on leave this summer, so there would not be enough staff to allocate that money.

A $100,000 sidewalk bond was cut because trustees felt they need a list of sidewalks that need work first. They do not want to pay interest on a bond when they aren’t sure where to spend it yet. Instead, they put that $100,000 into a reserve account for sidewalks for future use. This would put a total of $200,000 in that account.

The board also moved $250,000 initially proposed for the village’s planned emergency services building to be put toward matching a $150,000 grant for studies into installing geothermal heating and cooling instead.

Members of the Teamsters union and administrative employees will get a contractual 2% pay increase this year. Tsiklauri said paying staff is the village’s biggest expense.

Wages for the mayor and trustees are staying the same — $5,000 for each trustee, a total of $20,000 for the four-member board, and $10,000 for the mayor.

The village has a May 1 deadline to pass its budget.