North Tonawanda's mayor presented a city budget Tuesday, two weeks late.

It's something that led a taxpayer to file a lawsuit over it.

The budget keeps property taxes under the governor's 2 percent cap at 1.59 percent.

That's about an $18 increase for a home valued at $100,000.

Mayor Art Pappas re-iterated that the budget is the responsibility of the city's government as a whole. He said the delay was also in part due to shortages in certain departments and wanting to make sure everything was correct.

Alderman Austin Tylec, however, said that lateness can't happen because the council and the public need a decent amount of time to view the budget before it is rushed to approval.

”We double check. We wanted to do the very best we could,” Papas said. “We wanted to be careful on what we propose to the public and it did result in a delay which hopefully in the long run is going to prove effective for our residents.”

”If we need to ask questions, even myself, I'd like as much time as I can get,” Tylec said. “It's only a six-week period in which we can ask these questions and also if by chance there is a need to go over the tax cap then there's a process to that.

The budget doesn't use any money from reserves.

It also keeps all programs intact and leaves sewer and water rates the same.