Ridgewood Budget Set To Be Adopted Wednesday Night

A public hearing and adoption of the village’s 2015 budget will be held at a council meeting Wednesday night.

The budget, which includes a $31.3 million tax levy, would raise the average homeowner’s municipal taxes by about $47 this year, $56 with the library portion of the tax bill factored in, officials said.

The Village Council decided to move ahead with the budget and tax levy at a special budget meeting last month. The budget was one of three options that officials were considering for 2015.

The $31.3 million tax levy is about $371,000 more than last year’s $30.9 million, a 1.2 percent increase.

Officials also considered two other budget variants earlier this year: A “premium/reduced risk” option and a “reduced investment/greater risk” one.

The “premium” option would have raised the average tax bill by $63 with its $31.4 million tax levy. It would have given the library $25,000 of additional funds and added $200,000 in terminal leave funds.

The “reduced” option would have raised the average tax bill by $32, $41 with the library factored in. The $31.2 million proposed tax levy would only have been about $25,700 more than last year’s, a less than 1 percent increase. This budget would have cut nearly $101,000 from the “recommended” budget, including $17,000 from the library, $15,000 from the village’s disaster recovery plan, and $25,000 in information technology support.