Town of Wheatfield working toward budget approval

By Benjamin Joe

The Town of Wheatfield 2026 budget is shaping up as officials make a few tweaks to the preliminary budget, set to be spoken on by residents in a public hearing at 6:50 p.m. Nov. 3 in Wheatfield Town Hall.

Officials voted on shaving the 2026 preliminary budget by $30,746 during the Town of Wheatfield Town Board regular business meeting.

“We made some adjustments to the budget. Some things we didn’t need to do,” Wheatfield Supervisor Don MacSwan said. “I’m trying to think of an example … like the library. They submitted for a certain amount and they actually submitted less than we had projected. That was several thousands right there. So, we paid two different libraries and we always budget for more and then they submit for less.”

MacSwan noted he and the board did not celebrate these savings as extra or free money. Revenue was cut, as well as expenses, resulting from slim submissions from the town’s departments.

Some of the changes included taking over $13,000 from the Town of Wheatfield building inspector personnel budget, and adding $16,640 to the Town of Wheatfield highway fund from estimated sales tax revenue.

The final product was a decrease in estimated revenues and corresponding appropriations of $30,746 without any change to the tax levy.

In other news

•A late resolution was also voted on that placed a lost $171,970.11 back in the town’s coffers. The resolution was brought by Assessor Kelli Coughlin and involved putting unpaid water and sewer charges onto the tax bills of the residents who missed paying them.

“I add the unpaid water, the unpaid sewer, the unpaid refuse charges and any town charges, which are the grass cutting and everything,” Coughlin said. “I add all those to the 2025 tax roll, which is paid as the 2026 taxes. Anybody that didn’t pay these charges, they will be charged on their tax bill in January. So, the town recoups its money for that.”

The resolution passed unanimously.

•Andy Giarrizzo, a former resident of the Town of Wheatfield and a current landowner, visited with a complaint about 80 residential units being eyed for construction in a neighborhood he still rents property in along Amy Drive.

Giarrizzo said the market has changed and the area’s demographics have gone from professional tenants, such as teachers and engineers, to those he’s forced to evict for lack of payment of the rent.

Wheatfield is a wonderful place to do business in, he said, but the renters are not there to fill so many residential apartments, as he’s seen being a landlord there since 1991.

Giarrizzo also said it wasn’t fair for “mom and pop” renters who will deal with the glut on the market.

“It’s not 1990-something any longer. Not on the west side of Wheatfield,” he said.