AMHERST, NY — On Monday at the Amherst Town Board meeting, tensions rose as neighbors came together to air their grievances about the planned 11.4% property tax hike.
"If you asked any of the residents here tonight if they are happy with the direction the town is going, the answer would be a resounding no," said Kimberly Gable, a resident of Amherst.
Now, to ensure residents can easily access the town's fiscal budget, the Citizens' Budget Overview---would take more than 240 pages of the town budget and make it easy to digest and read.
"So this law is the idea to distill that down to 2 pages. That is user-friendly. It gives people the absolute answer to how much it will impact their property taxes in the upcoming fiscal year," said Shawn Levin, Amherst Councilman and creator of the bill.
Councilman Lavin says he has received much support for this bill.
"People were very encouraged by this. So by February 24th, I hope to get this on the books as a law," said Lavin.
As many citizens spoke out about the planned hike, Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa says that the town has done everything it could to keep the tax rate down, but with things like improvement projects and hiring police comes a high cost.
"We fought hard to keep our taxes lower. We hope that, you know, we could outrun the inflation. A year later, with some big infrastructure projects, it catches up," said Kulpa.
Come February 24th -- residents in Amherst could get a more accessible budget.
