CARMEL – If Putnam legislators approve County Executive Kevin Byrne’s executive-recommended budget for 2027, property owners will pay more than $2 per $1,000 of full value, less than they do now. Byrne submitted his fiscal spending plan to the legislature Thursday, proposing a $6.5 million reduction in the County property-tax levy with no new borrowing as the centerpiece of a spending plan focused on affordability, fiscal responsibility and expanding county services.
The proposed $229,742,582 budget would reduce the property-tax levy from $45.2 million to $38.7 million, a reduction of more than 14 percent. Byrne said the $6.5 million figure was “not arbitrary.”
Last year, lawmakers appropriated $6.5 million, approved by Byrne, for a proposed taxpayer rebate program. However, to date, the legislature has been unable to advance a legal mechanism to return those dollars to residents as rebate checks.
Byrne noted: “Rather than asking taxpayers to continue waiting for a rebate program that has not materialized, I am proposing providing the same amount of relief through a direct reduction in the county property-tax levy. Rather than make people wait, we are proposing something we know we can do because of the strong financial position we find ourselves in: Collect $6.5 million less in property taxes next year.”
Byrne said: “Families are getting squeezed from every direction; utilities, groceries, housing, insurance and just about everything else costs more. County government cannot control all of those costs, but we can control how much we ask our taxpayers to send us. Putnam County is in a strong financial position, and I believe the responsible thing to do is leave more of that money where it belongs: in the pockets of the people who earned it.”
The Executive Budget also accounts for Byrne’s proposal to make Putnam County’s sales-tax exemption on qualifying clothing and footwear purchases under $110 permanent.
The budget also continues Putnam County’s commitment to sharing sales-tax revenue with its six towns and three villages.
Byrne will formally present his 2027 Executive Budget during the executive’s annual Budget Address before the Putnam County Legislature on October 5 at 7 p.m. at the historic Putnam County Courthouse in Carmel.
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