The Town Board will hold a hearing November 5 on a law to override the state tax cap. Here is what that means.

Correction, October 14. The hearing is Thursday, November 5 at 6:00 p.m., not October 14. The notice the town posted on October 8 gave October 14 as the hearing date; at the October 14 meeting the board set the hearing for November 5, and when a resident asked why the notice had disappeared from the town website, the answer was that it had the wrong date and is being corrected. We reported the October 14 date from the notice and were wrong with it. The rest of this piece is updated to match.

The Town of Schaghticoke’s Town Board will hold a public hearing at a special session on Thursday, November 5 at 6:00 p.m. at Town Hall, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose. The subject is a proposed local law with a long title and a short purpose: “A Local Law Permitting the Town of Schaghticoke to Override the Tax Levy Limit as Defined Under Section 3-c of the General Municipal Law.” The town’s original notice, signed by Town Clerk Emily Calhoun, says the purpose is to override the tax levy limit, and that anyone wishing to speak for or against it will be heard.

What the tax cap is

Since 2012 New York has limited how much a local government can raise its property tax levy from one year to the next. The levy is the total dollars the town collects in property tax, not the rate on your bill. The allowable growth is 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, with adjustments the state comptroller calculates for things like new construction and pension costs. The town’s own levy and the special districts the Town Board governs, including the solid waste district that carries the garbage charge, count toward the same limit.

What an override law does

The cap is not absolute. A town board can exceed it if it first adopts a local law, by at least a 60 percent vote of the board, permitting the override for that budget year. The law must be adopted before the budget is. Adopting the law does not by itself raise taxes; it lifts the ceiling so the budget can, if the board decides to. Many towns pass the law every year as insurance against a miscalculation, since a levy that exceeds the cap without an override has to be set aside in reserve.

How it went the last two times

Schaghticoke has done this twice in the last decade, by our archive.

• 2019. A hearing on Local Law 1 of 2019 opened the November 13 board meeting and closed four minutes later. The board adopted the override and the 2020 budget the same night. Our summary is here.
• 2022. The board introduced the override at its October 12 meeting and held a separate hearing on October 27, where Supervisor Salisbury explained the reason: the rescue squad could not fill shifts with part-time staff, and hiring two full-time people with benefits would cost about $250,000 town-wide. The board adopted Local Law 2 of 2022 that night and the 2023 budget on November 9, with the trash charge rising from $200 to $210 per unit. See October 27 and November 9.

In 2022 the override was used. We do not yet know the reason behind this year’s law, and the notice does not say. The proposed text is “available for review at the offices of the Town Clerk and on the Town website,” but as of October 9 it is not in the town’s local laws folder, where the three laws adopted earlier this year are posted.

The budget calendar from here

State law sets the rhythm. The supervisor’s tentative budget is due to the Town Clerk by September 30 and goes to the board at its next meeting, which is the October 14 meeting. The board turns it into a preliminary budget and must hold a public hearing on it by the Thursday after Election Day. The budget must be adopted by November 20.

Update, October 14. The board set the override hearing for Thursday, November 5 at 6 p.m. The date of the budget hearing was not announced on the record; state law requires it by that same Thursday, and in 2024 and 2025 the town held it on that day. We will add both to the notices board as the town posts them. Our summary of the October 14 meeting is here.

Update, October 16. The town has now posted both notices. The corrected override notice gives November 5 at 6 p.m., and a separate notice of hearing on the preliminary budget, dated October 16, sets the budget hearing for the same hour and place. The preliminary budget is on file at the Town Clerk’s office for inspection. Our story on the budget notice and the proposed salaries is here.

What to watch for between now and November 5: the tentative budget figures, the Solid Waste district line that sets the 2027 trash charge, and whether the board says plainly why it wants the override. Our garbage contract coverage has the background on that line.

The notice, as posted

The town posted the notice as text on its News and Notices page on October 8 and took it down by October 14 because the date in it was wrong. No archived copy exists, so here is the text as we captured it on October 9, with the erroneous date left as posted:

Notice of Public Hearing Town of Schaghticoke, Schaghticoke Town Hall, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose, New York 12121-9707

Notice is hereby given that a Public Hearing will be held by the Town of Schaghticoke Town Board on October 14, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose, New York to hear all persons interested regarding the proposed Local Law entitled “A Local Law Permitting the Town of Schaghticoke to Override the Tax Levy Limit as Defined Under Section 3-c of the General Municipal Law”. The purpose of the proposed Local Law is to override the tax levy limit.

A copy of the proposed Local Law is available for review at the offices of the Town Clerk and on the Town website. All persons desiring to speak either on behalf of, or in opposition to, said proposed Law shall be heard.

Emily Calhoun, Town Clerk

How to comment

In person at 6:00 p.m. on November 5, or in writing to the Town Clerk, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose, NY 12121, or townclerk@townofschaghticoke.org. The notice is on our notices board.

Sources: the Town of Schaghticoke notice of public hearing, posted on the town site as text (no PDF) and captured by us on October 9 before the town removed it for carrying the wrong date; a community recording of the October 14, 2026 Town Board meeting for the corrected date; the town’s Town Board minutes for November 13, 2019, October 12 and 27, 2022, and November 9, 2022, as summarized in our archive; New York General Municipal Law section 3-c and Town Law sections 106 through 109 for the cap and budget deadlines. The description of the cap is general background. The town’s notice, proposed law and budget documents are the record.