FREWSBURG – The town of Carroll approved the 2026 budget at the most recent town board meeting on Nov. 19.

The final approved budget shows that the town’s total budget for appropriation and provisions for other uses is $3,229,133, with $1,491,363 to be collected through taxes. The town’s tax levy that is subject to the cap is $1,298,529. This levy amount will be about $61,078 below the tax cap of $1,359,607. This is a decrease from the total levy subject to the cap for 2025, which was $1,322,528. While the levy did decrease for the 2026 budget, the tax cap did see an increase. The tax cap increased from $1,322,813 in 2025 to $1,359,607 for 2026. While the tax cap for this year saw an increase, Councilman Kenneth Dahlgren noted the board’s successful attempt to ensure it stayed below two percent.

“I guess the tax cap could have been even more than two percent this year,” said Dahlgren. “But, we felt it was prudent to keep it under two percent, and it worked.”

The new tax rate for the town for 2026 will be about $7.0908 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, an increase from the 2025 rate of $6.9594 per $1,000, or 1.89%. The town decreased its tax rate by .8% in the 2025 budget compared to 2024.

While this slight increase comes following a year with a slight decrease, Dahlgren said that having no increase is just not a possibility with rising costs nation-wide.

“I know we would all love to see a zero percent increase, and we’ve done that a few years. The problem is that every time we do that we pay the piper a few years later, or the very next year,” said Dahlgren. “It’s just not good, prudent government to slash and burn, and then suddenly find out that you don’t have enough money to pay your bills.”

The town was able to find savings in the costs from the water and light districts. The light district went from a rate of 46 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2025 to 41 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2026, representing about a 10.99% decrease. Dahlgren noted the town’s past efforts to replace the lights with LED bulbs, something that is believed to have contributed to such significant savings. The water district also saw a decline from the 2025 rate of 2.7383 to 2.3588 in 2026, representing about a 13.66% decrease. There was no explicit mention from board members of what prompted these savings.