Over the last five years, the people who run the Town of Cornwall borrowed more than $30 million. That is money the Town has to pay back, with interest, using your tax dollars. But they never made a plan for how to pay it all back.
They just kept borrowing. One project at a time. Vote after vote. Every single vote passed with no one saying “no.”
Now your taxes are going up. Way up. And the Town’s savings account is almost empty.
Look at the Numbers
This chart shows two things: how much the Town owes (the blue bars) and what your property taxes look like per home (the red line). They’re both going in the same direction—up.
The Town’s debt almost tripled in two years. It went from $6.5 million to $18.5 million. That’s a 185% increase. And your taxes went up 35% in one year to help cover it.
What This Debt Costs YOUR House
Let’s make it personal. The Town’s combined tax rate jumped from $5.01 per $1,000 of assessed value in FY2025 to $6.64 per $1,000 in FY2026—a 32.5% rate increase. FY26 Budget Letter Here’s what that looks like on three different homes:
| Your Home Value | FY2025 Town Tax | FY2026 Town Tax | Annual Increase | Monthly Hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300,000 home | $1,503 | $1,992 | +$489/yr | +$41/mo |
| $500,000 home | $2,505 | $3,320 | +$815/yr | +$68/mo |
| $800,000 home | $4,008 | $5,312 | +$1,304/yr | +$109/mo |
And that’s just the Town portion of your tax bill. You still pay county and school taxes on top of this.
How Much of Your Tax Goes to Debt?
In November 2024, the Town moved over $1 million in budget adjustments to cover debt service from capital projects. That’s $1 million a year just in loan payments—about 8.4% of the total tax levy going to pay off what was borrowed with no plan.
Here’s what that means for you every year:
If you own a $300,000 home, about $167 per year of your town taxes goes straight to paying off debt that was taken on with no borrowing plan.
If you own a $500,000 home, it’s $279 per year.
If you own a $800,000 home, it’s $446 per year.
And with more debt still being issued and interest rates higher than when most of this was planned, those numbers are going up—not down.
Who Was in Charge of All This Borrowing?
The Supervisor is the Town’s “chief fiscal officer.” That’s a fancy way of saying: he’s the one in charge of the money. Every single bond resolution says the Supervisor is authorized to manage the borrowing.
That means every time the Town took on millions in new debt, it was the Supervisor’s job to make sure there was a plan. To keep track of what we owe. To make sure we could afford it.
None of that happened.
No debt management policy. No capital improvement plan. No schedule showing when all these payments would hit. Nothing.
And while the Town’s savings were being drained and the debt was piling up, the Supervisor gave himself a raise. He voted to increase his own pay while serving as the budget officer responsible for a fiscal mess that will take decades to clean up.
He has said so himself:
“The previous administration’s unprecedented use of fund balance to close out FY22 left us in a vulnerable position… Our savings were thoroughly depleted.”
— Supervisor Wojehowski RTBM 7-12-2022
“Spending of Fund Balance increased gradually until this year. It went from $1.05M in 2021 to $2.76M in 2022… Historically, the Fund Balance used was 5%-8% but in 2022 it jumped to 20%.”
— Town Board presentation RTBM 5-17-2022
So the Supervisor knows the money is running out. He’s said it out loud. But he kept borrowing anyway—without a plan to pay it back.
“But the DEC made us do the sewer work.”
Some of the sewer work was mandated—nobody’s arguing that. The minutes say it plainly: the Town was under a DEC consent order. WS & STBM 11-1-2022
But having to do the work and having no plan to pay for it are two different things. The DEC told Cornwall to fix the sewers. It didn’t say “borrow $30 million without a debt schedule or an affordability analysis.” And more than half of the borrowing—culverts, highway trucks, sanitation equipment—had nothing to do with the DEC at all. Those were choices.
“The whole Board voted yes every time. You can’t blame one person.”
That’s true. Every bond resolution passed unanimously. But think about what that actually means—not once did anyone on the Board stop and say, “Wait. What do we owe in total? Can we handle another round of borrowing on top of everything else?”
The Supervisor is listed as “chief fiscal officer” in every single bond resolution. All bond resolutions, 2021–2025 It was his job to lay out the full picture before asking the Board to vote. That never happened. When the Board votes yes based on incomplete information, that’s not shared responsibility. That’s a failure at the top.
“The previous administration left the fund balance too high. Spending it down was the right call.”
Interesting argument, except the Supervisor himself called the drawdown “unprecedented” and said it “left us in a vulnerable position.” RTBM 7-12-2022 His own presentation showed fund balance usage jumped from the usual 5–8% to 20% in a single year. RTBM 5-17-2022
So which is it? Was draining the savings a smart move, or did it leave the Town vulnerable? Because the Supervisor has said both—and you can’t have it both ways.
“We got millions in grants. That offsets the cost.”
Grants are real, and they do help. About $6 million is expected back across four projects. But that’s $6 million against $30 million in total borrowing—roughly 20%. The other 80% still comes from your taxes.
And here’s the part people miss: even when a grant covers most of a project, the Town still has to borrow the full amount up front and pay interest while it waits for reimbursement. RTBM 6-21-2022 Getting a grant doesn’t mean you don’t need a plan. If anything, it means you need one more.
“The tax cap is Albany’s fault. It doesn’t work for towns like ours.”
Councilwoman Edelman-Reyes has called it “superficial” and said Albany shouldn’t dictate how much the Town spends. WS & STBM 10-14-2025 Maybe so—but the cap is still the law. And the reason the Board had to override it by $1.7 million is because years of unplanned borrowing backed them into a corner. A borrowing strategy would have spread the costs out so the tax increases didn’t all land at once. Instead, taxpayers got the full hit in a single year.
“Sewer debt only hits the people in those districts. It doesn’t affect the rest of the Town.”
On paper, sure—sewer bonds get repaid through district assessments. But read the fine print. Every one of those bond resolutions pledges “the faith and credit of the Town.” All sewer bond resolutions, 2021–2023 That means if the district can’t cover its payments, every taxpayer in Cornwall is backstopping the debt. And the November 2024 budget showed that Sewer District 1 rates already went up because of these projects. STBM 11-7-2024 Those are Cornwall families paying more.
“We created the SBAC. We’re getting a handle on this.”
The Strategic Budget Advisory Committee was created in January 2026. WS & STBM 1-13-2026 By that point, the Town had already authorized $30+ million in debt. That’s not getting ahead of the problem—it’s acknowledging one exists. A committee formed after the borrowing is done is better than nothing, but let’s not pretend it’s a plan.
Where Did All That Money Go?
Here are the biggest things the Town borrowed for. Every single vote was unanimous. Not one Board member said “no.”
| Project | Amount Bonded | Payback Period |
|---|---|---|
| Shore Road Sewer Plant WS & STBM 12-12-2023 | $10,000,000 | 50 years |
| Firthcliffe Sewer Repairs STBM 11-16-2021 RTBM 8-16-2022 | $7,210,000 | 40 years |
| Beaver Dam Lake Sewer WS & STBM 6-13-2023 | $3,500,000 | 40 years |
| Firthcliffe Heights Sewer WS & STBM 6-13-2023 | $2,500,000 | 40 years |
| Boulevard Culvert STBM 5-29-2025 | $1,500,000 | 40 years |
| Taylor Road Culvert WS & RTBM 7-11-2023 | $1,500,000 | 40 years |
| Jackson Ave Culvert WS & RTBM 7-11-2023 | $1,300,000 | 40 years |
| Highway Equipment STBM 6-7-2021 STBM 5-29-2025 | $1,370,000 | 15 years |
| Continental Road Culvert RTBM 6-21-2022 | $855,000 | 40 years |
| Sanitation Trucks STBM 6-7-2021 STBM 5-29-2025 | $465,000 | 10–15 years |
Some of this work needed to happen. Sewers break. Roads flood. But the question isn’t whether the work was needed. The question is: why was $30 million borrowed with no plan to pay it back?
What About the Grants?
Good news: some money is coming back. The Town applied for grants on a few projects, and some of those grants will pay back part of the cost.
| Project | Town Bonded | Grant Coming Back | Net Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor Road Culvert | $1,500,000 | $1,200,000 | $300,000 |
| Hasbrouck Drainage | $5,650,000 | $1,990,000 | $3,660,000 |
| Boulevard Culvert | $1,500,000 | $1,400,000 | $100,000 |
| Riverlight Park NYF Strategic Investment Plan p.142 | $2,990,000 | $1,450,000 | $1,540,000 |
That’s $6.04 million in grants coming back across these four projects. That helps. But the Town still had to borrow or spend the money up front and pay interest while waiting. And against $30 million in total borrowing, $6 million in grants still leaves over $24 million that comes straight from your taxes.
The Town’s Savings Account Is Almost Empty
Every town keeps a “fund balance.” Think of it like a savings account for emergencies—storms, broken pipes, things you didn’t see coming.
In 2022, the Town drained 20% of the whole budget from that savings account. RTBM 5-17-2022 The Supervisor later called it a one-time tax cut. Now the savings are almost gone—and the Town’s own goal is to hit zero reliance by 2028. FY26 Budget Letter
That 2028 goal means taxes are going up even more in the next two years. The Town has said it needs to stop using savings and make the tax levy cover all costs. Translation: you’ll be paying the full bill, plus the debt.
“Spending of Fund Balance increased gradually until this year. It went from $1.05M in 2021 to $2.76M in 2022… Historically, the Fund Balance used was 5%-8% but in 2022 it jumped to 20%.”
— Town Board presentation RTBM 5-17-2022
The Spending They Didn’t Put in the Budget
Here’s something most residents don’t know. If you look at the Town’s budget, some capital project line items show $0. Zero dollars budgeted. But then millions get spent anyway.
| Account | Budgeted | Actually Spent |
|---|---|---|
| Sewer Treatment Plant (H37) Expense vs. Actual 2022–2024 | $0 | $8.86 Million |
| Highway Equipment (H27) Expense vs. Actual 2022–2024 | $0 | $2+ Million |
$0 in the budget. Millions actually spent. Year after year. If you went to a budget hearing and read the numbers, you’d have no idea this money was going out the door. That’s not a plan. That’s hiding the ball.
Too Little, Too Late: The Strategic Budget Advisory Committee
In January 2026, the Town finally created something called the Strategic Budget Advisory Committee (SBAC). WS & STBM 1-13-2026 Who exactly will sit on it and what authority it will have remains to be seen.
This is a good idea. It’s also five years late.
The SBAC was created after more than $30 million was already borrowed. The committee is being assembled after the spending, not before it. It’s like hiring a financial planner after you’ve already maxed out every credit card.
The Bottom Line
- $30+ million borrowed. No plan to pay it back. Bond resolutions 2021–2025
- Debt tripled in 2 years. $6.5 million to $18.5 million. Budget_Analysis_Additional_Issues.docx
- Taxes up 35% in one year. And more increases are coming. FY26 Budget Letter
- Savings almost gone. $2.76 million drained, now down to $1.3 million. RTBM 5-17-2022
- $0 budgeted, millions spent. Capital spending hidden from the public. Expense vs. Actual 2022–2024
- Every bond vote: unanimous. Not one “no” vote. Not once. All meeting minutes 2021–2025
- The man in charge? The Supervisor—who serves as chief fiscal officer, oversaw all of this borrowing without a strategy, and voted himself a raise along the way.
Some grants are coming back—$6 million for Taylor Road, Hasbrouck, Boulevard, and Riverlight Park. That’s real money and it helps. But it’s a fraction of the $30 million owed. And the Town had to borrow it all first and pay interest while waiting.
The question isn’t whether sewer plants and culverts needed fixing. They did. The question is why the person in charge of the Town’s finances—who gave himself a pay raise for doing the job—never once made a plan for how to pay for it all without crushing the people who live here.
All data in this article comes from public Town of Cornwall meeting minutes (2021–2026), annual budget documents, expense vs. actual reports, and capital project records. We are not here to tell you what to think. We are here to show you what we found and let you decide.
Methodology & Sources
This article was built from the following public documents:
- Meeting minutes (2021–2026): STBM 6-7-2021, STBM 11-16-2021, RTBM 5-17-2022, RTBM 6-21-2022, RTBM 7-12-2022, RTBM 8-16-2022, WS & STBM 11-1-2022, WS & STBM 6-13-2023, WS & RTBM 7-11-2023, WS & STBM 12-12-2023, STBM 11-7-2024, WS & STBM 11-12-2024, STBM 5-29-2025, WS & STBM 10-14-2025, WS & STBM 1-13-2026
- Budget documents: FY26 Budget Letter, Budget_Analysis_Additional_Issues.docx
- Financial reports: Expense vs. Actual reports (FY2022, FY2023, FY2024)
- Grant documents: NYF_1_Cornwall_Strategic_Investment_Plan (p.142)
- Tax rates: $5.01/thousand (FY2025) → $6.64/thousand (FY2026), per FY26 Budget Letter