The Fredonia Village Board of Trustees is hiking the proposed budget even higher than originally proposed.

Fredonia’s trustees didn’t cut the village’s proposed tax hike. In fact, they pushed it higher.

The tax hike stands at 65.3%, to $61.09 per $1,000 of assessed property, after a more than two hour session to finalize the budget Monday morning. It was a long day as the trustees also convened in the evening for their regularly scheduled meeting.

The trustees wound up going over the budget line by line Monday, searching for places to cut costs in Mayor Michael Ferguson’s original proposal which raised taxes about 55%. They didn’t find many places — though one was in their own budget line.

The village board generally seemed to agree with Trustee Nicole Siracuse, who stated that Ferguson’s budget would have cut village departments so deep that they could not properly do their jobs. She spoke of “additions to the budget to make sure departments were able to run, at least effectively.”

Trustee Jon Espersen said at one point, “If we’re going to tell every department they need to do the same job they did last year with less, then I think we can expect that of ourselves as well.” He proposed to cut trustees’ stipends in half, from $5,000 to $2,500.

Trustee Michelle Twichell questioned how much impact that would really have on the village’s bottom line and added, “I think ($5,000 is) a fair amount for the work we do.”

Espersen responded, “Not only do I think it’s the right thing to do, I think it sends a horrible message” if trustees don’t cut their pay.

Twichell noted no one else was getting cut 50%. She suggested a smaller cut of $1,000. Siracuse then successfully advocated for a $2,000 cut, to a stipend of $3,000.

“The goal would be to secure more funds, and… to make a statement,” Trustee Paul Wandel said.

Trustees also plan a $3,000 cut to Ferguson’s pay, taking it down to $9,000. Cutting their own pay and the mayor’s saves the village $13,000.

There was also some discussion Monday about trying to save money on communications. Trustees want Ferguson to turn in his village cell phone, saving $35 per month.

It was also alleged that DFT is billing the village for phone lines that no longer exist, and Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau said she is shopping around for phone service alternatives. “I would hate to go away from DFT because they’re local, but they’ve got to understand the situation too,” Twichell said.

At one point the trustees just sat there silently, as LeBeau calculated a new tax hike after changes proposed that meeting. “So let’s go through the department heads’ requests that we talked about with them and said we would circle back to today,” Espersen said, breaking the silence.

“There is very little that I would take back, to be honest, because my feeling is that we gave them the bare minimum to make sure their department would function,” Siracuse responded.

Espersen proposed that the police department buy only one new car instead of two. Twichell, Siracuse and Trustee Ben Brauchler all expressed reluctance about buying one car. Espersen said that buying no cars at all is not an option.

The trustees eventually agreed on cutting a car, which got the tax hike down to 65.3%.

Water and sewer rates are also going up. Ferguson’s budget proposed a sewer rate hike to $9.06 per 1,000 gallons, up from the current $7 per 1,000 — and that reportedly would only get the sewer fund to break even. Siracuse successfully proposed making the hike a dollar, to $8 per 1,000, while increasing the base usage fee.

The water rate is set to rise 60 cents, to $7.60 per 1,000 gallons.

As the budget meeting concluded, Espersen declared that the village must take a serious look at consolidating services with nearby municipalities, doing more than paying lip service to the idea.

“This tells the tale,” he said, holding up the budget. “These numbers say we have to make dramatic changes. Nothing can strike home more than the tax increase we’re looking at.”

Ferguson, who proposed the budget and is recovering from surgery, did not attend the morning session. He made his public return to Village Hall in the evening meeting.

Public hearings on the budget start at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Village Hall. Trustees made sure to point out Monday that the hearings are for the public to comment, and not a question-and-answer session with village officials.