Grand Island Town Board OKs $32.5M budget

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

The Grand Island Town Board adopted its 2026 budget at the regular Monday night meeting. The spending plan was approved 3-1, with Council member Dan Kilmer casting the dissenting vote.

During the meeting, an overall figure of $32.5 million was given as the total of the eight different fund budgets that comprise the town’s spending plan. Separate figures were provided for the appropriation for each of eight town budgets and for the amount to be raised in taxes for each.

Those budgets are: general fund, fire protection, highway, sewer district, water district, lighting district, refuse and garbage and debt service.

The fire protection budget and the highway budget drew comments from board members.

For fire protection, board members said that setting a fixed budget was difficult, since a contract has not yet been signed with the Grand Island Fire Co.

Council member Tom Digati made a motion to approve the overall budget, and Supervisor Peter Marston seconded the motion.

During discussion, Kilmer said, “I’m on the fence because I’m a little disturbed still about the fire protection line. I don’t understand how it says, ‘decrease 28.63%.’ Is that decreasing from the original supervisor’s budget?”

Kilmer questioned, “How can it be down 20% when they (the fire company) are asking for a 15% increase?”

“It’s the rate,” Digati and Marston said. Marston clarified that it was because of the reassessment.

Kilmer added, “I just I'm having a difficult time … to vote ‘yes’ on the budget is to have an opportunity to have the fire protection line increase by over 15%.”

Before the board voted, one resident spoke out in the public hearing on the budget. Paula Sciuk had a question about a raise that brought the town supervisor’s salary to $88,004.80 for 2026.

Marston explained, “So, it's on a pace on a pay schedule that been set since (former Supervisor) Peter McMahon was in office. (The increases) just start at zero for a new supervisor. When I leave it will go back … and it goes up every year incrementally. It’s been the system for 20-some years. I didn’t create the system.”

Sciuk said, “I understand that, but maybe there needs to be some changes in the system.”

Marston replied, “We’ve talked about that.”

The town posted a preliminary budget summary on the town website and posted videos of budget workshops online on YouTube. The budget summary was published in the Oct. 31 edition of the Tribune-Sentinel-Dispatch, as well.

Town Accountant Korin Frantz explained the budget impact on town property owners’ tax bills is skewed because of the full value reassessment that occurred in 2025. The total tax levy is the same, but the rate per $1,000 of assessed value for individuals has gone down.

An example Frantz gave illustrates the estimated tax impact for a Grand Island property owner in 2026.

“If your house is assessed at $400,000 and your land value is assessed at $70,000 – for non-lighting districts – if you are in a sewer district, your taxes will be approximately $1,548 for the town. For $400,000 (house value) and $70,000 (land value) for non-sewer district, you’re at about $1,288 – and that’s an estimate.”

Later in the budget discussion before the vote, Marston said the town should consider bonding the expense of repairing Staley Road, which residents for the past four years have cited as deteriorating and unsafe.

“I see no financial relief for what we have going on Staley Road. I think we're going to have to own it at some point,” Marston said. “I think we will find some money to help us (resolve) the problem, but I am concerned that we don't have enough money in our budget to start that process to take that augmentation and start chipping away on this. I really think this is going to have to be a three-year process with them. We need to start. We can't finish until we start.”

Kilmer said, “I would have agreed with bonding for Staley Road. Absolutely. Any infrastructure, you're going to have me on board.”

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Grand Island 2026 budget summary

General fund budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $12,741,280 and tax rates for budget year 2026

•Amount to be raised by taxation (levy): $2,335,135

•Estimated tax rate per $1,000: $0.671, a 31.63% decrease

Fire protection budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $2,023,325

•Amount to be raised by taxation: $1,877,750

•Estimated tax rate per $1,000: $0.531, a 28.63% decrease

Highway fund budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $4,836,585

•Amount to be raised by taxation: $3,167,151

•Estimated tax rate per $1,000: $0.91, a 34.63% decrease

Sewer district fund budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $5,439,330

•Amount to be raised by taxation: $1,636,684

•Estimated tax rate per $1,000, on land value: $3.72, a 33.87% decrease

Water district fund budget total:

•Total appropriation amount: $5,156,877

•Amount to be raised by taxation 1,511,065

•Estimated rate per $1,000, land value only: $2.534, a 17.62% decrease

Lighting district budget:

• Total appropriation amount for 58 districts: $208,578

•Amount to be raised by taxation: $188,576, a 0.6% increase

Tax rate varies by district

Refuse and garbage budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $2,062,292

•Amount to be raised by taxation: $2,059,685

•Tax rate, flat rate single-family dwelling: $265, a 5.2% increase

Debt service budget:

•Total appropriation amount: $86,588

•Transfer from other funds: Zero

Salaries:

The following are the proposed 2026 salaries of certain town officers of the Town of Grand Island:

• Supervisor: $88,004.80
• Councilperson: (four) $22,035.81
• Town clerk: $85,120.57
• Highway superintendent: $95,534.40
• Town justice: (two) $53,305.91