Ridgewood trims $2.45 million from 2025 budget; projects 3.14% tax levy increase

Ridgewood officials said at a special village council budget meeting April 1 that they have identified $2,445,834.50 in cuts, grant transfers and trust-fund draws to bring the proposed 2025 appropriation under the state-imposed appropriations cap, and that those moves leave the village facing a projected tax levy increase of 3.14% for 2025.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Bruni, who walked the council through a multi-page packet of line-item reductions, said the center column of the “budget cuts impacted by department current fund 02/2025 introduced budget” shows the total reductions: “That center column there, equates to, $2,445,834.50. That's the total number, that's been able to be removed from the appropriation side to be raised by taxation,” Bruni said.

The cuts and offsets span most departments. Bruni said reductions include: about $70,000 in police salaries and wages (including overtime and compensatory time reductions), $100,600 in police operating expenses, $118,000 in engineering charged to capital, $189,007.19 in parks operations (including not hiring four planned positions — three full-time and one part-time), and various smaller reductions in planning, historic preservation, animal control and other lines. The finance office also applied unappropriated grant funds and trust balances (including $75,000 from a recycling trust) to lower the amount that must be raised by taxes.

Bruni described adjustments for public-works items including a $50,000 offset from the snow trust and reductions in fleet overtime and maintenance. He said landfill disposal and recycling line items were reduced based on January–February actuals and available grant funding. In sanitation, the village calculated lower salary costs after a retiree was replaced with a lower-salaried hire and applied $122,000 in grant funds against appropriations.

Council members and administration staff emphasized that managers were asked to pare nonessential operating costs while avoiding cuts that would directly reduce resident services. “We were able to cut back, some significant cuts, but none that would directly affect the services that are rendered to the residents here at Ridgewood,” staff member Keith Rooney said at the start of the discussion.

Bruni also told the council the village remains under the tax-levy cap calculation permitted by state law and described the two separate caps used in municipal budgeting: the appropriation cap and the tax levy cap, which factor in adjustments such as debt service, shared services and new construction credits. “So we've maintained our tax levy cap. We've stayed under it...we've come up with a tax rate increase of 3.14 for 2025,” Bruni said.

The meeting also flagged an immediate funding risk for the health department. Officials said they were notified Friday evening that two of three federal grants the health department has used to run post‑COVID programming and to fund two staff positions were frozen by the federal government. The town said it and the state — which administers the grants — have taken legal steps and are seeking clarity; meanwhile, staff said roughly $17,000 remains from another grant that could cover those two positions for about one to two months. Bruni called the situation “very much fluid” and warned numbers in the proposed budget could change before the budget is introduced and again before final adoption.

Other budget details discussed: the tax assessor, Bill Palumbo, reported 15 new county tax appeals filed by the April 1 deadline (compared with 31 last year); the village used a three-year average starting in 2021 to calculate the reserve for uncollected taxes after changes involving Valley Hospital’s taxation; and the village’s total employee count is projected at 314 for 2025 (up from 310), with a net increase of four positions tied to public safety restorations.

No final adoption of the budget occurred at the special meeting. Staff said they will finalize a spreadsheet and share it with the council; the administration plans to introduce the budget the following Wednesday and the public hearing and final adoption are scheduled for May 14, though officials said the health-grant situation could require changes before those dates.

The meeting closed without other formal votes; a motion to adjourn passed by voice vote.