Town Supervisor Cavaccini and Wappinger Town Board Approve 2025 Budget Under Tax Cap and Expands Services
Spending Plan for Town’s Sesquicentennial Year To Expand Services and Programs While Being Under The Tax Cap and Offering a Tax Rate Reduction
WAPPINGER NY – During the November 20, 2025 Special Meeting of the Wappinger Town Board, Town Supervisor Joseph D. Cavaccini, Senior Councilman William H. Beale, Councilwoman Angela Bettina, and Councilman Al Casella unanimously voted to approve the Town’s 2025 Final Budget. Councilman Christopher Phillips could not attend the meeting but offered his support to the adopted Budget.
“After many months of crafting and careful deliberation, we are pleased to present the Final Wappinger Town Budget for fiscal year 2025, a sound and balanced financial plan for the 150th year of the Town of Wappinger, that will be under the Tax Levy Cap with a Tax Rate decrease. As announced in the 2024 State of the Town Address, this administration has strengthened this Town’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, as we undertook a comprehensive review of our financials, diligently drilling down to uncover true expenses and discrepancies. I am proud to report that the Town of Wappinger is in excellent overall financial shape, now doubled with the strong new internal policies and procedures that have been implemented throughout 2024 that allowed us to develop a realistic understanding of our expenses and revenues.”, said Town Supervisor Cavaccini.
Through this careful planning, the Town’s Final Budget reduces Town taxes through a tax rate decrease and staying under the NYS Tax Levy Cap at 1.86%. Taxpayers will find that the newly forecasted Town-Outside Village Homestead rate of $1.59 per thousand of assessed value from $1.70 per thousand of assessed value and the Village portion of the Homestead rate will be $0.65 per $1,000 of assessed value. Non-Homestead rates are $2.94 per thousand of assessed value for Town-Outside and $1.20 per thousand of assessed value for Town Inside Village. All forecasts are decreases in the tax rate. In being more realistic in Town revenues, such as sales tax, interest, State aide, etc., the 2025 Final Budget alleviates a significant potential burden on taxpayers by only levying $9,051,946 of our total $20,725,588 budget on property taxpayers.
Cavaccini went on to say that, “This budget not only meets all our contractual obligations and anticipated increases but also allows us to expand our Parks & Recreation Department programming to include two Summer Camps and expanded Senior Citizen enrichment services, increase our aggressive targeted traffic enforcement of the Wappinger Patrol, expanding our efforts when it comes to applying for grant funding, enhance our parks and facilities infrastructure, invest in significant capital improvements for our Town’s water and sewer systems and reconstruct 8 miles of Town roadway infrastructure – the most in recent history. This is in addition to continuing our commitment to creating a safer work environment for our Buildings and Grounds Department, among many other initiatives. Additionally, we are excited to allocate resources to celebrate our Town’s sesquicentennial
through the Wappinger150 initiative, that will highlight a year’s worth of events and programs for families of all ages to enjoy!”Fourth Ward Councilman Al Casella stated, “This budget is fiscally sound and conservative. The tax cap rate will be 1.86%, which is below the 2% rate as dictated by NYS. It takes into account the needs of the residents such as: additional funding for senior programs, upgrading various town properties like parks to enhance our quality of life, additional funding for medical costs that continue to skyrocket, continued and enhanced police protection for the safety of our residents, funding for our highway team to keep our roads safe and clean.
There are many other improvements in the budget not listed above . These are just some of the highlights. I appreciate all the hard work and effort of the board and our comptroller. We may not agree on everything, but the board is dedicated to do what is in the best interest of our residents.”
The 2025 plan is available on the Town’s website as well as at the Office of the Town Clerk.
###
Review Town Supervisor Cavaccini’s Budget Letter to the Town HERE
Review the 2025 Final Budget HERE
