FALLSBURG — The Fallsburg Town Board held a public hearing on November 5, regarding the 2025 preliminary budget, which includes a proposed tax cap override due to a combined proposed tax increase of 4.85 percent, which includes the villages within the town.

Town Attorney Richard Baum explained that passing a tax levy override is a standard precaution for municipalities like Fallsburg. 

“There are significant penalties if we accidentally go over the limit, so we adopt the override to avoid these issues, even if we don’t end up exceeding the cap,” he said.

According to New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, any local governing body seeking to exceed the tax cap must pass a local law approved by 60 percent of its members.

Fallsburg Supervisor Michael Bensimon noted that the budget vote has been postponed until next week, stating, “there’s time for us to just work out details and see if we can work on that a little bit more.”

Fallsburg Comptroller Scott DuBois shared that the town’s annual tax increases have averaged below one percent over the past six years, a rate he admitted was “unrealistic” given current economic and inflationary pressures.

DuBois added that the property tax increase could mean about $82 more per $100,000 of assessed value. In the current economic climate, he described the increase as “not a tremendous amount when you talk about it in dollars.”

The Town Board will hold a final vote on the 2025 budget next Tuesday and the preliminary budget is available on the town’s website, www.townoffallsburg.com, for review.