SPRING VALLEY – Mayor Schenley Vital explained in detail during the April 29 Village Board meeting why his 2026-2027 budget plan needed to bust the state’s property tax cap and hit residents with a double-digit tax increase, and how such a dramatic step would put this long-struggling village on the right path to solvency.
But it was for naught.
When it came time to take the necessary precursor vote to pierce the tax cap, Vital couldn’t get a board member to help move the motion forward from the three trustees in attendance.
Then, in a move that appeared to be a surprise to Vital, Trustee Yisroel Eisenbach announced that since the vote failed, the mayor’s budget would become law unless another trustee offered a budget plan. Eisenbach then said Trustee Schmuel Smith, in fact, did have a plan.
Smith’s $38.3 million budget proposal would raise the tax levy 3.6%, a hair below the state’s 3.7% tax cap for the village in 2026-2027.
Vital, who had originally floated a budget plan that included a more than 12% tax levy hike, reported to residents during the April 29 meeting that he had removed a raise for himself and a replacement for the mayor’s 12-year-old vehicle. Still, his plan included a tax hike closer to 11%.
Smith’s proposal included reductions in certain investments that Vital had deemed needed for years, including more equipment for various departments.
Smith, Eisenbach and Trustee Yakov Yosef Kaufman voted yes on the trustee budget plan. Vital voted no. Trustee Joseph Gross was absent.
Will it be enough to stave off village dissolution?
Community members are expected to again raise the idea of petitioning to dissolve the village. Two such efforts have been launched in the past few years.
Village resident Ben Nezri had been among those pushing for dissolution. The village lacks basic, reliable services and infrastructure and parks are crumbling, he said. Yet taxes are set to climb.
Nezri during a break in the April 29 board meeting said he understood why there was a need to raise taxes to help get the village back on its feet. But, he said, “the solution to the taxes is to dissolve the village.”
A diverse and growing community
Spring Valley is the second largest village in the state, and among the most diverse.
Some 20-plus nationalities and ethnic groups are represented among the residents of this 2-square-mile village. Spring Valley has a large newcomer population, with many residents from Central and South America and the Caribbean. The village has the second-largest Haitian diaspora, per capita, in the U.S. The Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish community continues to grow within the village.
There’s often been divide among that diversity.
A development boom in the village has fed that tension. Many residents, a few who had lived there for more than 50 years, said the new housing appeared to not be welcome to anyone.
At several points, the 60-plus person audience, which reflected the village’s diverse population, exchanged words with each other, groaned or booed.
Vital called for decorum on a few occasions. “We need to unify the village,” he said at one point. “We live together, we share the same parks.” Many clapped.
Nancy Cutler covers People & Policy. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram at @nancyrockland.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Spring Valley mayor’s budget scrapped by trustees. See the tax hike
Reporting by Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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