Town of Niagara looking to course-correct with new budget

By Benjamin Joe

The option to override the 2% tax cap was formally approved by a 4-1 vote at the Town of Niagara’s regular Town Board business meeting on Tuesday. Councilman Charles Teixeira was the lone dissenting vote against authorizing Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso and the board to increase taxes by more than 2%.

He defended his decision after the meeting.

“I just think there’s a way we can go without going over,” he said. “But I’m only one of four. …

“I understand where they’re coming from, but I think it could be done.”

Teixeira also admitted he and former town boards could’ve done things differently in the past. He said a service fee for refuse could’ve been implemented years ago, as well as an emergency services tax.

“We should have probably increased taxes over the years,” Teixeira said. “But we’re still working on it. We’re not going to have the budget until after the election, because that way nobody is going to have to answer to it come election time, which I understand.”

Teixeira will not be on the ballot for councilman on Nov. 4, and his seat – as well as Deputy Supervisor Marc Carpenter’s, who is running again – will be contested in the upcoming election, with at least one new candidate coming onto the Town Board.

Virtuoso spoke on the issue of the tax cap and 2026 preliminary budget before closing the meeting. She addressed the one speaker at the public hearing for the budget, Gary Haseley, who suggested taking from reserves to bridge the tax-services gap, as well as ask if there is any way to get a better deal from Amazon, which he felt had not fully paid for the privilege of building a warehouse in the Town of Niagara.

“Gary, everything you told us is being taken under consideration,” Virtuoso said. “I really appreciate you coming out, talking to us, and I wish I could say we could really do that – not going over the tax cap this year. Between the new CSEA agreement, the fire company agreement, and health insurance increase of last year, 16%, this year 25%. Of everything around us falling apart. We have ceilings collapsed in the community center. We have leaks in this building. We had (things) falling apart at the garage. We needed a new parking lot. These are things, because everyone wanted to politically be correct and stay under the 2% cap, that weren’t taken care of. …

“I’m hoping not to go over 3% of the tax cap, but taking any more reserves is not giving us enough funds to work towards that garbage fee, because (the landfill is) going to close in 2027. I like to save up enough money so we don’t have to raise a ton of money that first year, and get everybody used to a garbage tax.

“There’s a lot of other reasons. There is no more waste; we don’t really have any waste. These are just bills that we need to pay and save for the future.”

In addition, snow removal fees have been changed to lowering the larger parcels to a cap of $300 per event; and raising the residential, which there are fewer on Military Road, from $10 to $50.

Every penny has to count, Virtuoso acknowledged.

The 2026 budget is set to be voted on at the Town of Niagara’s Nov. 18 meeting.