Oswego officials have agreed to leave a proposed 5% reduction in the village's property tax rate inside the developing 2027 budget, even as the village's police pension bill climbs toward $2.5 million. The move keeps alive a rate cut that staff say would be the lowest on record, while the overall levy itself is still set to rise by tens of thousands of dollars.
Board Reaches Consensus Despite Pension Worries
Village officials reached that consensus on November 2, agreeing to keep the proposed 5% reduction in the village property tax rate in the budget currently taking shape, according to WSPYnews.com. The decision came even though officials weighed the reduction against concerns about future pension costs and broader economic uncertainty, per the same report. The proposed levy itself is about $2.05 million, roughly $64,000 more than the previous year's levy, even as the rate itself is expected to fall.
That seeming contradiction — a bigger levy alongside a lower rate — comes down to projected growth in the village's equalized assessed value, which the outlet reports is expected to push the tax rate down by about 5% even as total dollars collected rise. Village staff told officials the proposed rate would be the lowest on record, the station's report notes.
One Trustee Wanted the Rate Held Flat
Not every trustee was on board with cutting the rate further. Trustee Karen Novy preferred keeping the tax rate flat with no additional decrease, raising concerns about reducing the rate while the village remains responsible for increasing pension costs, per the same account. Novy said she is fiscally conservative and concerned about the future economy, the report adds.
Trustee Rachelle Koenig offered a different framing, saying residents may hear frequently about rising taxes without realizing that the village's own share is actually headed in the opposite direction, according to the outlet's report. The split underscores a tension running through the village's budget talks: cutting the rate looks good on paper for property owners, but it also means leaning harder on other revenue to cover rising pension obligations.
Pension Costs Are Climbing Fast
The pension math behind that tension is stark. The proposed levy would cover less than the village's approximately $2.5 million police pension contribution, with about $455,000 of that contribution instead coming from general-fund revenue rather than property taxes, WSPYnews.com reports.
A separate WSPYnews.com report put a finer point on just how much that pension obligation has grown, finding the recommended village contribution for the upcoming year at $2,508,207 — an increase of about $224,000, or 9.85%, over the prior recommendation. The same report notes the pension fund paid about $2.28 million in benefits last year, a figure projected to climb to roughly $4.8 million annually by 2035.
How This Fits Into a Longer Pattern
Oswego has trimmed its property tax rate in recent years even as pension and other obligations grow. The Village of Oswego has reported rate decreases of 5% and 3% in recent years, and the village's overall equalized assessed value rose approximately 13% over the previous year, partly due to new development within the village. Patch reported the rate fell 5.55% the year before that, part of a stretch of cuts that have pushed the rate to what the village has called its lowest level on record since 2007.
The village's own property tax page states that of a resident's total property tax bill in 2024, just 1.59% went to the village itself — with those dollars covering the costs of police pensions, among other village expenses. In a prior levy cycle, trustee Novy was the lone “no” vote against the levy, with trustee Jennifer Hughes absent, according to Patch's account of that meeting.
What Comes Next
The proposed levy and budget are expected to return to trustees for formal approval, meaning the 5% rate reduction and the roughly $2.05 million levy figure remain proposals rather than finalized numbers. The village's fiscal year 2026 budget, approved after lengthy discussions and revisions, projected total revenues of $175,574,754 against total expenditures of $174,615,573, for an anticipated surplus of $959,381, giving some sense of the broader financial backdrop against which this year's tax rate debate is playing out.
