Town of Coeymans, New York

NEWS: 2025 Budget Message

January 21, 2025

2025 Budget Message

It is the duty and responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), in this case also serving as the Supervisor, to combine strategic financial oversight with leadership of the town’s overall operations. This ensures alignment of fiscal planning with municipal goals.

The Business Office Manager for the Town of Coeymans supports these efforts by focusing on administrative financial operations, such as procurement, maintaining financial records, and acting as a bridge between staff and the CFO. The Accountant for the Town of Coeymans handles detailed financial tasks, including ledger maintenance, reconciling accounts, and ensuring accurate and timely financial reporting, often providing the data used by the CFO for decision-making. Together, these roles ensure strategic leadership, operational efficiency, and fiscal accountability for the town. As Supervisor, the CFO provides direction across all departments, manages the budget, oversees compliance, and sets long-term priorities for the town.

In preparing the 2025 budget for the Town of Coeymans, the office staff for the Supervisor closely worked and listened to the needs of department heads, appointees, employees, and the Town Board. This practice was used to ensure that our town budget was not created by just one person, but was created utilizing all relevant information available, and following the history and trends of the numbers.

The first order of business for the Supervisor’s Office was to cut hidden waste, and reduce overestimated budget lines for a trim, tight budget. This freed up funds to be contributed to a safe and versatile Liquid Asset Fund with a much higher yield for the town than traditional low-yield bank accounts.

In cooperation with this strategic economic plan is an increase in communication. Through creating an open, accessible, approachable administration, the Town, the Village of Ravena, their residents, and the RCS School District, have begun a process that will help us not only prosper financially, but flourish as a community, working together towards a common goal.

That communication will carry digitally as well. With a new and updated website for the Town of Coeymans, we will increase transparency by posting easy-to-read Budget and Revenue Reports. Our contribution to the Liquid Asset Fund has already increased the town’s revenue by almost $20,000 per month, and is projected to earn $190,000 annually. It is because of this fiscal planning that the residents of Coeymans enjoy a 0% tax adjustment for 2025. 

The reduction of hidden waste and budget overestimation, in concert with a novel increase in the town’s revenue, has given the town the ability to purchase a property – without the purchase of costly bonds and interest rates – to be used as Town Hall which is centrally located and easily accessible for residents and department heads alike. In this way, as a town, we will be able to meet all the challenges and opportunities ahead in the future.  

Coeymans is growing, and it has strong municipal leadership in all departments. The Town of Coeymans will continue to strengthen our fiscal planning while navigating the global industries, surrounding local municipalities, and state officials that work alongside us. Rest assured, the hard work is being done in Coeymans: we are not simply tasked with building a town, but growing our community.