Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Coxsackie village officials April 25, adopted a $1.7 million budget that does not require a tax levy increase for property owners. “This new budget will have a zero percent budget increase for the budget year starting June 1, 2021,” Mayor Mark Evans said in a statement. “We felt it was critical with the very difficult year we have been through with COVID-19 to hold the line on taxes and spending.” For a village homeowner with a property assessed at $100,000, the tax rate will remain steady at $13.22 for each $1,000 of assessed value. There will be no cuts in services, Evans said. “The goal was to preserve all services and programs and we were able to do that,” he said. Water and sewer rates will also remain unchanged. “The water and sewer funds are funded by user fees. In the water fund, as we get the new water tank built, hopefully sometime in the next year, we will have a payment to the Environmental Facilities Corporation projected to be $51,000 each year for 30 years,” Evans said. Work on the sewer plant upgrade continues and the budget anticipates debt payments for that project. A portion of the $17 million upgrade will be paid by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for its use of the sewer system, Evans said. The village board is also anticipating sidewalk replacements and work on the downtown revitalization project during the coming year, the mayor said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.