TONIGHT: Hearing on New Castle 2013 Budget

New Castle's Town Board will hold a public hearing tonight on the proposed 2013 town budget.

The budget, which was first unveiled as a preliminary version earlier this fall, has undergone some minor changes, according to Town Administrator Penny Paderewski. The current version, which is called a preliminary budget, calls for a tax rate hike of more than 3.24 percent, or nearly 43 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value. In absolute dollars, the rate would go from roughly $13.23 per $1,000 to about $13.66 per $1,000. The hike is a slight drop from the roughly 3.26-percent hike called for in the preliminary budget.

The tax levy, which represents the amount of tax revenue to be collected in the budget, would rise by roughly 2.08 percent, from $19,340,705 in 2012 to $19,752,495 for the new fiscal year. The levy hike is by a smaller amount than the approximately 2.14 percent proposed in the earlier budget version.

The town will come in under the state-mandated property tax levy cap, which is the lesser of two percent or the inflation rate, because of an exemption that covers tax base value change. 

The tax cap does not affect any tax rate changes.

The Town Board's meeting, which will include the hearing, starts tonight at 7:45 p.m. at town hall in Chappaqua. A copy of the preliminary budget is on the town's website.