By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- Town officials say they don’t want to tap the fund balance any more than they already have, so the tax rate for 2017 will increase.

Supervisor Rollin Beattie says that if state aid had kept up with rising expenses “we wouldn’t have to override the tax cap.”

Under the proposed 2017 budget, the tax rate for town property owners outside the villages of Potsdam and Norwood will be going up 15.5 percent, from $3.29 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation now to $3.80 per thousand.

Owners of property assessed at $100,000 would pay $380 for next year’s budget compared with $329 for this year.

Property owners in the villages of Potsdam and Norwood, both within the town, will see their tax rate for town services increase from $2.53 to $2.66 per thousand if the budget is approved as it stands under the proposal.

The tax levy – the amount of money raised through property taxes – will be up from $1,654,201.15 for 2016 to $1,872,216.85 for 2017, a difference of $218,015.70.

Expenses have increased by 1.8 percent, or $4,000. The revenue from mortgage taxes has been flat.

The budget for the recreation program, shared with the village, is about the same, with more services, including more skates for kids.

The funding for the four fire departments in the town – Potsdam, Norwood, West Potsdam and Hannawa Falls – “has been maintained at an even level,” according to the town fact sheet.

Among the factors cited for the higher town tax rate are the familiar ones: disappointing sales tax returns and lower revenues from fuel taxes, against continually higher expenses for salaries and benefits such as health insurance.

There is the tax cap, originally set at two percent but which will be more like 0.7 percent this year. The board plans to vote to override it, Beattie said. State aid has not gone up since 2012, and the fund balance is dwindling.

“The rate is up because we don’t have the fund balance to offset the expenses,” said Deputy Clerk to the Supervisor Sally Boslet. “We’ve been using too much for too many years.”

There is $105,000 from the reserves in the 2017 budget, and they could have drained it to keep the tax rate steady, but they have to maintain some balance, Boslet said.

“If it’s an emergency, where are you going to go?” she said.

The fund balance – reserves generally kept on hand for contingency expenses such as replacing a piece of equipment that broke down before its replacement was planned – has been tapped every year since 2009 to try to soften the blow to property owners of higher budgets without breaking the state-imposed property tax cap.

In 2011, the year the tax cap law was signed, the town used $517,000 from reserves. In 2012, $585,000 was applied to the budget; 2013, almost $524,000; 2014, more than $404, 000; 2015, $220,000; and for the 2016 budget, $126,000 was applied. For the 2017 budget, the town plans on using $105,000 from the reserve fund.

How much is actually left in the fund balance is difficult to calculate, though the town will approximate it at the end of the year. The calculation is complicated by the rate and amount of state reimbursements, the changing sales tax return, and other factors.

Boslet said she thinks they have been taking care with the people’s money. “I pay taxes, too. We try to be frugal, and fair,” Boslet said.

The public hearing on the budget is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, before the regular town board meeting.