The Village of Pelham Board of Trustees presented a tentative budget of $20.4 million last week for fiscal year 2026-2027, an increase of 9.43 percent over the current year’s budget. If approved, the substantial increase means the village will have to blow through New York state’s property tax increase cap of 2.58 percent, and hike real estate taxes on commercial and residential properties by an average of 8.72 percent, according to a presentation at the April 14 trustees meeting.
Village Mayor Chance Mullen tried to provide some context for the budget and tax increases. “There’s that balancing act between wanting to keep the overall number and the overall levy increase as low as you can get it, while simultaneously not wanting to undermine quality of life or make cuts that are going to be not sustainable,” he said at the meeting. “And it’s a difficult debate that happens every year. This year that those discussions started in a very difficult spot. And it’s been true for basically every municipality.”
Village Administrator and Treasurer Christopher Scelza then began a presentation in which he focused on several areas where rising costs were driving the bigger budget.
In particular, Scelza singled out double-digit growth in employee benefits and debt service payments as the primary forces behind the need to increase taxes.
Expenditure categories2025-2026 (adopted)2026-2027 (tentative)change ($)change (%)
Personnel services$8,674,118$8,724,237$50,1190.58%
Equipment$104,900$76,500-$28,400-27.07%
Contractual (operating accounts)$1,833,496$1,822,825-$10,671-0.58%
Special items$872,000$1,306,187$434,18749.79%
Employee benefits$5,989,580$6,836,244$846,66414.14%
Debt service$1,143,575$1,607,090$463,51540.53%
Total$18,617,669$20,373,083$1,755,4149.43%
With a budget of $20,373,083, the village would need to bring in $15 million in property taxes in the coming year, compared to $13,797,247 last year, when the total budget was $18,617,669. Under the state’s tax cap, which is at 2.58 percent, Scelza said the village would only be able to raise the total levy by $355,305. The amount would leave a big hole between what the village could bring in under the tax cap and the proposed budget for the year.
Scelza also mentioned some adjustments that could alleviate the pain, but concluded that, “Even with these adjustments, the the 2026-27 tentative budget was not compliant” with the tax cap.
As for the proposed tax increase, it would hit homeowners hard. Scelza said the average value of residential homes in the village was $1,092,441. Under the proposed budget, the village tax on that home in the coming year would be $7,386, which would be an increase of $1,040 over the current fiscal year, or a jump of 16 percent.
Mullen said he and the trustees were “trying to craft a final budget that has priorities we’re invested in,” while not undermining quality of life in the village. He also said this was “the single most difficult budget process I’ve experienced.”
“What we are trying to manage is what are the things where you find an expense and you say…we can bring that down temporarily. But even in those situations, you know you’re going to have to bring it back up the next year to catch up. So we want to make sure that we’re not gutting the quality of life spending that we have, but also trying to manage these expenses. And then the final thing that I will just say is there is no penalty for exceeding the tax cap.”
The Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget at its April 28 meeting.