Village of Homer Looks to Vote on Tax Cap Limit Override During Next Meeting

The Village of Homer looks to join with several other municipalities within Cortland County in overriding their tax cap limit of 2% for next year’s budgets. Local governments within the county have been working diligently to adjust their budget following the county’s decision to decrease towns and villages share of sales tax revenues.

The Village of Homer, under the contract with the county, will receive in 2026, $689,751.56. This is $110,027.09 less than what the village received in 2025 under the new agreement. With just about $110,000 less in sales tax revenue for the village, the village looks to make tough choices in the coming months. 

“We need to look at a tax cap override, again as a precautionary thing.” Mayor Clune said. “We are still just starting our process for the budget. However, we need to look at, don’t have to decide right now, but we need to look at authorizing overriding the 2% tax cap.”

Mayor Clune went on to say the Towns of Virgil, Homer, and Cortlandville, have all passed resolutions to override their tax cap limit. All three towns are also facing significant challenges with a lower sales tax revenue share from the county. Clune says the Town of Homer looks to have about an 8% tax increase as a result. 

“Again, it’s a cautionary measure, but I am gonna be frank. This sales tax ripple down effect is significant to our budgets. We’ll see.”

Clune added.

“One of my frustrations with the county is that they seem to be looking for more ways to grab more money from the municipalities before they did hard look at their own budget to see what they could do to rein in spending and get rid of wasteful programs.” Deputy Mayor Elizabeth McGrath said. “I don’t wanna follow the county’s example. I want [the board] to look and see what we can do to cut spending as we look at our budget. Realistically, even if we keep things flat, where they are, or make cuts, [the village] are still probably going to need to do this override.” 

Trustee Finkbeiner added the cost for things have also greatly increased, which will be another challenge for the village’s budget. Finkbeiner says a truck the village needs to use cost $170,000, but now costs $350,000. 

“There are costs you can’t cut. You need a truck.” Finkbeiner said.

Mayor Clune says another challenge was the significant increase in health insurance for the village. Health insurance for the Village of Homer went up 18% in 2025 Clune said.