New Castle Town Board to Vote on 2013 Budget

Members of New Castle's Town Board are slated tonight to vote on adopting a 2013 budget, according to its meeting agenda, one that complies with the tax levy cap.

The proposed budget is $35,923,988 and has a tax levy, or total amount of tax levy, of $19,752,495. The levy amount is roughly 2.14-percent increase from the year before, according to Town Administrator Penny Paderewski. Although the tax levy cap is the lesser of the inflation rate of 2 percent, the town complies because of exemptions such as growth factor that is applied to account for a monetary change in the town's tax base.

“So we're well within our cap," she said at a recent budget hearing.

The tax rate, which is the amount that a property owner pays per $1,000 of its assessed value, is slated to rise by about 3.25 percent. 

The average New Castle home has an assessment of $172,309, Paderewski said, which would translate to a town tax bill of $2,354.65. Most of the average annual tax bill goes to school taxes, she said, while a relatively small portion - it's 10-15 percent, depending on if special districts are counted - goes to the town.

To read more about the budget, click here for details.