Watertown City Council talks hefty tax rate hike in proposed budget

Craig Fox, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read
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May 20—WATERTOWN — Councilman Robert O. Kimball said that his colleagues should have seen the hefty tax rate coming in the proposed 2024-25 budget.

All of the signs were there, he said Monday night. The city needs to bite the bullet and move forward with the proposed $58.4 million, as is, he said.

He plans to vote for the 19% tax rate increase.

"You could vote me out in 3 1/2 years," he said.

The council has met three times during budget deliberations this spring and has not made a change in the budget.

They will meet on May 28 and bring their ideas that night. They intend to vote on the budget on June 3.

Kimball brought up how he's looking at the budget during the new business of Monday's council meeting, prompting the other council members to react to what he had to say.

Councilman Benjamin P. Shoen said spending has gone up about 50% during the past 10 years. People won't be able to afford to live in Watertown anymore, he said.

"We want to be extremely careful when we increase taxes," Shoen said.

But Kimball pointed out that the city hasn't had a tax increase during the past four years. One year, taxes actually went down, he said.

A property owner with a home assessed at $100,000 will pay about $165 more in taxes under the 19.3% tax rate increase, Kimball said.

People say that their taxes have gone up, "but that's not the case. Taxes have not gone up in four years," he said.

If the council goes ahead with the tax increase, it'll provide "a cushion for next year," Kimball said.

"I still think we can get to that budget gap," Councilman Cliff G. Olney III said.

Ten years ago, the tax rate was $7.29 per $100,000 valuation, Councilwoman Lisa A. Ruggiero said. The current tax rate is $8.29, she said.

"Definitely that's within reason," she said, adding that it's lower than some villages in the area.

Former Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith kicked off the budget talks earlier in the night when he told council members that they could immediately reduce 5% from the budget by closing down the Thompson Park Golf Course and one of the city's three summer pools.

It's a familiar refrain from when Smith was in office when he opposed the city spending $3.4 million for the golf course and $4 million for a new pool on the city's north side.

And his comments were met, once again, by criticism from Ruggiero and Olney. They were big supporters of both projects.