Message from the Strategic Budget Advisory Committee
The process to formulate the 2027 Cornwall town budget has recently commenced. Listed below are the steps that will be followed by state statute to create the new budget:
- Under Town Law Sec. 103 (2), the town supervisor is the town’s budget officer.
- Per Town Law Sec. 104, the head of each administrative unit must submit to the supervisor estimates of expenses and non-tax revenues for the upcoming fiscal year by September 20th.
- The supervisor then prepares a tentative budget from these administrative-unit estimates, to be filed with the town clerk by September 30th (Town Law Sec. 106 {2}).
- The town clerk presents this tentative budget to the town board at a regular or special meeting to be held on or before October 5th (Town Law Sec. 106 {3}).
- The town board reviews the tentative budget and may make revisions by majority vote (Town Law Sec. 63). The board may continue its review over multiple meetings so long as the statutory deadlines are met.
- Upon completion of the town board review, and board approval of all modifications, the tentative budget becomes the preliminary budget. The preliminary budget must be filed with the town clerk and made available to the public (Town Law Sec. 106 {4}). No further changes can be made until after the public hearing.
- A public hearing on the preliminary budget must be held by the Thursday following Election Day which, in 2026, is Thursday, November 5th (Town Law Sec. 108).
- Following the public hearing, the town board may consider and approve additional modifications to the preliminary budget. No additional public hearings are required (Town Law Sec. 109).
- The board adopts the preliminary budget as the official annual town budget for the upcoming fiscal year no later than November 20th (Town Law Sec. 109).
- Fire districts create their own budgets which must be filed with the town clerk by November 7th (Town Law Sec. 181 {3}{c}).
Sebastian Persico
Chair, SBAC