Unanimously, the Town of Highlands adopted a $8,280,076 budget on November 4. The 2025 spending plan stays under the New York State mandated tax cap – the budget is up 1.18 percent from 2024.

To keep the budget below the tax cap, the board authorized the use of $196,000 from the town’s tax stabilization reserve fund, and $513,000 in fund balance, Pecoraro said.

Taxes of $4,423,117 will be collected from the residents of Highland Falls and Fort Montgomery. Property owners can expect to see a tax rate of $11.63 per $1000 of assessed valuation in Fort Montgomery and $6.01 per $1000 of assessed valuation in Highland Falls.

The vote to approve the budget was 4-0, Councilman Tyrone King was not at the meeting. The vote came after a short executive session where the board finalized the payroll for 2025 – “in general most non-contract employees will be getting a two percent pay increase,” Supervisor Bob Livsey said, “but some employees were brought up to a rate equal to others in the same categories.” He noted that the two percent increase is half-a-percent under COLA (Cost of Living Allowance).

Livsey said the state’s new minimum wage standards were also taken into account when planning for summer hires, etc.

Town Board members were given a $1000 a year salary increase – from $4000 to $5000 annually – but the supervisor’s salary remains at $15,000 annually.