AMHERST, NY (WKBW) — Amherst residents are bracing for a double-digit property tax increase, and this could create a burden for some homeowners.
More than 70% of homes are "owner-occupied" in the town and while U.S. Census data reports income and housing costs are above average nearly 10% of the town also lives below the poverty line.
“I think it's BS. Didn't know about any meeting or anything to go and voice anything and 11% is pretty steep,” declared Ken Kobylanski, Amherst resident.
Amherst resident Kobylanski is not happy about a planned 11.4%- property tax hike.
The Amherst Town Board voted 4 to 1 to override the state's tax cap.
Amherst Board member and Deputy Supervisor Deborah Bucki cast the only "no" vote.
“I voted no because I always have concerns about exceeding the tax cap,” reflected Bucki.
I reached out to Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa who told me he was on vacation but texted me saying quote "We have to bite a bullet to move a million plus into the budget this year."
Kulpa said they have less surplus, more police vacancies to fill, and a big commitment to public safety.
The town supervisor told me in a statement that part of the reason they are raising taxes is due to rising interest rates, higher labor costs, and a $33 million project to conduct a street-light conversion.
“We were paying millions of dollars a year to National Grid, not only to supply us with electricity, for the lights but to make the repairs,” responded Patrick Lucey, Amherst Highway Superintendent. “So, we paid the energy costs to the Grid and we also paid the maintenance costs. now, both of those costs are going away.”
I met with Lucey who says they have been working to buy some streetlights from National Grid.
“The reason why the town decided to go this route is to convert everything into LED lights, which is going to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in just energy costs alone,” Lucey explained.
Bucki said the street light project is a necessity, but cost savings won’t occur right away.
“But unfortunately, the savings are more toward the end of the cycle of the project, so that could be several years from now before you start to see some of the savings,” noted Bucki.
The town is also expecting the tax revenues to help fund redevelopment projects like the Boulevard Mall and Westwood Country Club.
But town member Bucki says she's very worried about residents being able to afford such a significant property tax hike.
“We need to be mindful of our taxpayers and some are on fixed incomes, some our seniors, and to the greatest extent possible try to find as many economies as we can,” Bucki remarked.
Homeowners like Kobylanski say that based on his home assessment, he is expecting to pay about $300 a year extra with the tax hike.
“You hate to raise a stink, but you ‘gotta raise a stink because it's just wrong. They should have had meetings. with people in on it, voicing our opinions,” Kobylanski replied.
"Bottom line message to the town?” Buckley asked. “Speak to the people — get the word out. Don’t be doing nothing behind the scenes there where nobody knows anything about it. you need to hear from what the people think, not just do it,” responded Koblyanski.
The property tax hike appears to be a done deal with no other special sessions scheduled. Town leaders must finalize the budget by November 20th.
The following is the full statement issued by Supervisor Kulpa:
“It’s a lot more complicated than a headline. Last year we bonded a $33 million streetlight conversion, are growing our lighting districts and dealing with contractual labor increases. Last year, we had abnormally large reserve, and we put $6 million back to offset the 8 percent inflation rate, while leaving our own reserves at a healthy 10 percent. we had a lot of police vacancies, and other items that created that surplus. this year, we have less surplus to apply as we have staffed back up and our tax levy ebbs and flows because we are 130k population municipality that has a huge commitment to public safety and infrastructure. We also have to stop borrowing for items that are recurring expenses like buying police vehicles and highway vehicles, we could get away with it when the fed held interest rates at zero, now that we are facing higher interest rates, it will hurt us long term, but that means we have to bite a bullet to move a million plus into the budget this year.”
Brian Kulpa, Amherst Town Supervisor
