Mayor Greg “Porp” Rogers answers a question during Wednesday night’s meeting as Trustee Raymond Yacuzzo, left, and Trustee William Kettle, right, listen.
Story and photos by Brian Quinn
The village of Le Roy has a $4,664,237 budget in place for 2026-27 that includes a 10% tax levy hike.
Following a public hearing, trustees Wednesday approved a budget with a property tax levy of $2,314,000, up about $208,000 from this year’s levy. The tax rate is $8.80 per $1,000 of assessed property value, up about 10% from this year’s rate of $7.99 per $1,000.
Patrick Kennedy of Le Roy said the village is not growing and that something needs to change.
During the hearing, the board heard from a couple of residents. Resident Patrick Kennedy said he has lived in Le Roy for about 30 years and that the village is not growing, contrary to comments he’s seen.
“I understand the need for keeping Le Roy’s credit good. I understand the financial situation,” he said, before adding, “Le Roy’s actually been stagnant for years. The whole time I’ve been here, it’s been dying. My kids went through the school. The school district’s declined over the years, in terms of head count, from when my kids were there.”
Kennedy said he wasn’t criticizing the village Police Department, but said it’s twice the size of Avon’s, though the village and Avon are about the same size.
“We have the village versus town thing, so we have the extra tax burden if you live in town,” he said. “Over the 30 years, I’ve seen a lot of people move out. I’ve seen a lot of rental properties take over, but I’ve seen those people who bought those properties upgrade those a lot.”
Main Street used to be full of businesses, but it now seems as if there are a lot of empty spaces there, Kennedy said.
“Taxes have gone up considerably over the last 10 years. I’ve seen a big bump,” he said. “A lot of that may be due to the assessments and the realigning with how things have gone, especially with the real estate market.”
The jump in the tax rate is probably not going to go well with a lot of people, he said.
“You’re going to do what you’re going to do and I’m going to pay my taxes, but somehow, something’s got to change,” Kennedy told the board. “I’d love to see Le Roy grow and flourish, and I’d love to see more business in town.”
Mayor Greg “Porp” Rogers said the board shares Kennedy’s concerns. He said he doesn’t feel the village can “out-develop” the tax burden and inflation that are coming.
“I think our utilities are going to crush us. Earlier, I talked with the Rotary. I told them … the threats that we have – the electricity, the water, getting rid of the end product at our sewer plant, these are real things,” Rogers said. “It’s not just us. Everybody’s going to feel the pinch in New York State.”
A police force is expensive to have, the mayor said. The department budget request is $1,442,168, about $77,000 more than there $1,365,373 budgeted this year. Rogers said the village is in negotiations with the union representing officers for a new labor contract. The bargaining unit is the New York State Law Enforcement Officers Union Council 82.
“Any budgeting we do for that is surely a guess. We won’t know until we have a finalized contract,” Rogers said. “We have three vacant spots … We currently know at least two of them, possibly three, that will not be filled with full-timers.”
Rogers estimated the village would save $120,000 by going from full-timers to part-timers for those two or three jobs, but said it was a guess.
Police Chief Greg Kellogg said overtime is part of the reason for the increase in the budget request for the 2026-27 budget year, which begins June 1.
“Overtime is anticipated to be a little bit higher. The rate’s going to be higher, potentially,” he said.
Kellogg said the $1,442,168 could end up being lower, but that the department didn’t want to under-budget and be short funds.
Bonacquisti said the department doesn’t buy new police cars anymore.
“We buy used, we drive them for a couple of years and sell them for more than what we paid for them,” he said. “He’s (Kellogg) done a hell of a job with the cars.”
The police chief said the department looks at everything to try to find savings anywhere it can.
“Everything is just getting more and more and more expensive,” Kellogg said.
In general, while preparing the budget, the Village Board has scrutinized every possible cost category.
“If there’s something out there I should be looking at, I would love to know,” the mayor said. “A lot of ours comes down to personnel, the wages they get, health care, retirement. One of the perks of being employed in the New York State retirement system, that’s pension.”
The cost of employee benefits decreased from $937,630 this year to $928,623 for 2026-27. Within those totals, hospital and medical insurance expenses went from $239,550 to a request of $212,000.
Rogers said the village is trying to bring in residential development. He said the assessed value in the village in 2016 was about $162 million. It was $180 million in 2024. The tax rate, in that timeframe, went from $10.45 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $10.70 per $1,000.
“I think we had 15 new houses built in the village this year, which is more than they’ve had in the last two decades, down on Lake Street,” he said. “There’s some hope on the horizon, maybe, on West Main Street. I can’t really hang my hat on that.”
In trying to control spending, the village chose not to spend money on a pickleball court that it had considered doing.
“If we can do it cheaper … We got a bid for $138,000. There’s no way in hell we’re going to do that,” Rogers said. “If we can do it for $10,000, we’ll do it.”
The mayor said it comes down to personnel the Department of Public Works has five employees and a foreman. The Police Department has 16 officers, half of them full-time and half part-time.
Resident Arlett Perry talked about concerns she has with a construction project happening next door to her residence.
Resident Arlett Perry said there has been a construction project going on at the property at 12 Myrtle Street.
“We have been there for eight years and things have just gotten worse. There have been nails in our driveway. At one point, there was a tarp on the roof where ice had fallen off and caved in … the roof of his (her son’s) car,” Perry said. “There’s constantly debris in our backyard. They took our fence down without even asking permission.”
Perry asked how long she and her family are supposed to deal with this. They have reached out to Code Enforcement throughout the years without a proper response, she said. She also agreed with Kennedy that the village is declining.
“It shows lack of leadership and accountability. Le Roy’s starting to feel dead and uninviting. I would love to love Le Roy again,” she said. “What is being done about this property (on Myrtle Street)? Why is it taking so long to come to a resolution? We would like a clear timeline when this will be done and addressed.”
Rogers, he’s not trying to pass the buck, but told Perry the town of Le Roy runs Code Enforcement. He said he has talked to Town Supervisor Jim Farnholz and Code Enforcement, as well as Town Justice Emily McNamara.
Kellogg said he spoke Wednesday to the contractor for the project on the property next to Perry’s and told him he had until the end of the day to secure debris from the project.
“Our concern is the debris in the roadway, the sidewalk and the lot directly behind. That prompted a phone call from the property owner. She stated that she had the property for approximately two years. There’s not much she can do. I reaffirmed our position that needs to be secured. It needs to be disposed of properly, so it’s not going on everybody’s property.”
Trustee James Bonacquisti said the village plans to meet with the town next month to address code enforcement.
“There’s a couple of properties in Le Roy that are embarrassing,” he said. “There’s one property that nobody sees, that if you saw the pictures of this, you would be shocked that this house is in Le Roy and it’s gone on this long. It’s going to end.”
When asked about discussions on potentially consolidating the town and village, Rogers began by saying the relationship between the town and village has never been better.
“We get along exceptionally well, just like brothers who fight every once in a while,” Rogers said. “The work we get done together is very good. I think the world of their board. I’m sure they have the same respect for my board.”
Clerk-Treasurer Eileen Carmel swears in new board member Dan Vanderhoof at the Village Board meeting Wednesday.
In his Mayor’s Corner message posted April 2 on the village website, Rogers said the goal was to dissolve the village and consolidate with the town to save money by taking advantage of incentives offered by the state, and gain efficiency from eliminating a duplication of services.
“This is not going to happen as both boards interviewed two companies who assist with the grants and study, and the town has no interest in this plan at this time,” he wrote at the time.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the mayor said the village and town relationship was good enough that the municipalities thought it was time to see if there was enough incentive and savings to dissolve the village.
The New York State Department of State website says General Municipal Law Article 17-A gives a unified process for the consolidation and dissolution of local government entities. The process applies to towns, villages, fire and fire protection districts, special improvement districts, other improvement districts created pursuant to Articles 11, 12, 12-a or 13 of Town Law, and other districts created by law. It excludes school districts, city districts, or special purpose districts created by counties under County Law.
Under Article 17-A, there are two different methods for local governments to consider: board-initiated or citizen-initiated. The process for either consolidation or dissolution is the same. Only voters registered in the local government entity may sign consolidation petitions or serve as the contact person for the petition, the Department of State said.
Unlike a board-initiated reorganization, in a voter-initiated process the consolidation agreement or dissolution plan will not be developed until after the referendum on whether to consolidate or dissolve passes. The plan must contain the same information as one prepared in a board-initiated process. Once a proposed plan is prepared by the governing bodies, voters have the opportunity to conduct another petition drive to require a second referendum, this time on the plan itself. If that drive is successful and another referendum is held, it too must pass in order for the reorganization to take effect.
The possibility of consolidating is not off the table, Rogers said.
“We try to work together to be as efficient as we all can be. We’ll see what happens from there,” he said.