SARANAC LAKE — The Saranac Lake village board adopted a $7.3 million budget in a 4-1 vote last week. The budget meets the tax cap for the coming year.

Trustee Aurora White voted against adopting the budget because she said there were “inconsistencies” between the salaries for some employees listed in the budget and the salary amounts the board had discussed in private meetings previously.

White said she was part of one executive session prior to being sworn in, and another after officially taking office, where they discussed potential changes to employee salaries. When she saw the budget they were voting on last week, the amounts they discussed did not correlate what was in the budget.

White asked for a caveat that the board approve the budget with the knowledge that those salary numbers did not reflect what the employees were actually making, rather that the village could spend up to that amount on that position. She had hoped the village could solidify what the employees’ salaries would actually be at a later date.

This caveat was not added.

Mayor Jimmy Williams said having a salary number in the budget but paying a different amount would pose a transparency problem. He said there was not enough time to hold an executive session on the salaries before voting on the budget, as the deadline to adopt a budget was in two days.

White felt they never came to a conclusion on salaries and never had the chance to have a final discussion on the topic.

She said some of these salaries were higher than discussed, and some were lower. All of them are for non-union positions, since union member pay is set by contracts.

White said she hopes these discussed pay rates weren’t communicated with the employees, especially for ones whose approved pay was lower than what was discussed in the private meetings.

“The amounts that were higher, I guess the employees would be fine with it. The amounts that were lower, I don’t know if the employees realize they were lower,” White said.

She said she’ll be addressing this further with the village leadership.

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The budget

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The village plans to spend $7.3 million in the next fiscal year, $995,773 more than last fiscal year. This is mostly increases in employee benefits and pay, according to village Manager Bachana Tsiklauri.

To pay for this, the budget calls for the village to collect, or levy, $4,453,928 from taxpayers, a $116,956 increase from last 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% — the state base of 2% plus a growth percentage of 0.33%.

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 other half of the increased revenue comes from increased interest, Tsiklauri said, because of new banking practices. This interest was not budgeted last year, because it was unclear how these practices would work out back then.

The budget calls for the village to pull $1,121,326 from its fund balance, $630,948 more than the last budget called for. There is $4 million in the village general fund balance currently. The village has had a high fund balance for several years now. Tsiklauri said they are working on clearing this out in the future.

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.

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

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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 will 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 last year.

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

Residents in the North Elba part of Saranac Lake will 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 will pay $3,028.98 in village taxes, $367.32 less than last year.

Residents in the St. Armand part of Saranac Lake will 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 will pay $3,365.52 in village taxes, $30.78 less than last year.