MAYVILLE – The mayor of Forestville says he’s obviously pleased his village will be getting a loan from Chautauqua County to help keep property taxes from seeing a record increase.
Mayor Kevin Johnson was one of several Forestville residents who attended Wednesday Night’s County Legislature Meeting and requested lawmakers approve a loan for $150,000. The money is needed to help pay off a loan and avoid seeing a property tax increase of 445 percent. The legislature eventually voted 17 to 1 in favor of granting the loan to the village.
Following the meeting, Mayor Johnson expressed his gratitude to lawmakers. “It’s not everything but it helps a lot. We’ve still got a big hump to get over but we’re getting some help and that’s a start,” Johnson said. “We already have taken some other steps to pay off one of the loans and we’re still going to have to raise the tax levy, but not as much.”
Johnson adds that the village is now facing a 100 percent increase in taxes – which is still a steep tax hike, but no where near the initial projection of 445 percent.
One of the conditions the legislature has in giving the village the loan is for the village to look into possible dissolution. A committee will be set up to initiate a study, and Mayor Johnson says its something that will take time to complete.
“There’s a very lengthy study and detailed study that has to be done,” Johnson said. Frankly, I would welcome that study so we can see exactly where we have to go, what our finances have to be in the near future and in the long term. Maybe it is [worth doing] and maybe it isn’t, but we won’t know until we’ve actually taken a look at it.”
Johnson – who was only recently elected mayor and was not part of the village when it failed to pay back its initial loans – says officials will also be contacting the state comptrollers office and request it conducts an audit of the villages finances.
As for the loan from the county – the village has five years to pay it back at 3 percent interest. If it fails to do so within that time, the county will withhold sales tax revenue from the village in order to ensure the money is returned.
Leave a Reply