Batavia residents will get their chance to weigh in on the 2019-20 city budget in two weeks per a resolution passed by City Council tonight.
Following a long and heavily attended public comment session over whether it should send a letter to Albany opposing the state’s recent Reproductive Health Act (watch for a detailed report on The Batavian), Council voted on several measures, including the setting of a public hearing on the budget for 7 p.m. Feb. 25.
The proposed $27.4 million spending plan calls for $5.2 million to be raised by taxes and a tax rate of $8.96 per thousand of assessed valuation, which is the same as last year’s rate.
As a result, owners of a house assessed for $70,000, for example, would face a city tax levy of $627.20 for the year.
A separate public hearing, also at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 (the date of Council’s next Conference Meeting), will address a 3.5-percent increase in water rates and meter fees, and a 10-percent increase in capital improvement fees.
A third public hearing is on for that date and time, this one dealing with the adoption of a local law amending the city sign code.
City Council also passed a resolution requesting that State Sen. Michael Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Stephen Hawley sponsor bills that would allow Genesee County and the City of Batavia to enter into an amended and restated sales tax allocation agreement for a period not to exceed 40 years.
Other resolutions passed by unanimous vote include:
-- A measure referring the review of the zoning of public storage rental units in the Batavia Municipal Code to the City Planning & Development Committee in response to a petition from Peter Yasses, 54 Cedar Street LLC, in relation to the lack of permitted zoning use of public storage rental units.
-- A supplemental agreement with New York State that paves the way for the city to receive “back pay” along with an annual increase in payments from the state through an arterial maintenance agreement that will extend through 2049.
This agreement stems from the discovery that the City was underpaid for work it did to maintain state highways (Routes 5, 33, 63 and 98) dating back to June 1994 and is not being reimbursed enough to cover its costs going forward.
As a result, the City will receive a one-time payment from the state for $218,539.88 to take care of the underpayments and now will be paid $183,017.40 annually, an increase of $6,500.
-- The endorsement of two bonds financing installation and construction of sidewalk and traffic signal improvements on State Street, Centennial Park, Washington Avenue, Bank Street and Richmond Avenue (pathways to schools), and water system and drainage improvements along South Main Street, Brooklyn Avenue and Union Street.
Seventy-five percent of the estimated $1.1 million sidewalk project will be paid through federal funding and the previously budgeted cost of the water system project is set at $913,000.
-- An order appointing Dwight Thornton to the city’s Board of Assessment Review for a term ending on Sept. 30, 2023.
