Cash-strapped and casting about for new ways to find some, Bedford is contemplating adjustments in the fees it charges for a wide range of municipal services.

Virtually every town function—from building permits and subdivision site plans to parking stickers and police alarms—is on the table, with an eye to increasing the fee or imposing one for the first time.

The search is part of a broad effort to offset a dramatic drop in revenue and the inevitable impact that falloff has on the property tax levy. In the simple math of the budget process, revenue is the "other" source of cash used to pay municipal bills. To be sure, property taxes remain the backbone of local government finance, accounting for roughly three-quarters to two-thirds of spending. But "revenue" determines whether the property levy will finance the larger or smaller fraction of the budget.

At this point, the proposed 2011 budget calls for spending $25.4 million, of which revenue will finance just over $7 million and property taxes must pick up the rest. The board has until Dec. 10 to revise that "tentative" budget and hold a public hearing, after which it's known as the "preliminary" budget. By Dec. 20, it must adopt the preliminary budget, as submitted or amended, or it will automatically become the "annual" budget.

Many tributaries feed the revenue stream, but towns throughout the county and beyond have for years enjoyed the relatively painless contributions of two key cash cows: the county sales and mortgage-transfer taxes. While a sour national economy has adversely impacted both streams, the housing market's collapse in particular cut mortgage-transfer fees by more than half.

To appreciate the impact of that abrupt reduction on the town budget and its property tax levy, consider the mortgage tax's contribution to overall revenue. As the accompanying table (posted below) shows, this revenue stream alone meant $2 million in found money for the town in 2007.

The Westchester county clerk collects the fee, called a mortgage-recording tax, when a mortgage changes hands through sale or refinance. The money collected is then shared with the localities of the mortgaged property. In the halcyon days of overinflated housing prices—the market that marked this millennium's early years—the recording-tax revenue stream was a raging river of self-replenishing, hands-free income in Bedford and everywhere else.

By 2007, of course, as the air was coming out of the housing bubble, the mortgage tax's $2 million nevertheless amounted to a quarter of the revenue flowing into the town coffers. That revenue, in turn, paid more than a third of the town's expenses, which kept the property levy at $16.2 million, or less than two-thirds of the budget.

Fast-forward to today, and the mortgage tax—a robust $2 million just four years ago—does not come close to bringing in even a million dollars. Its estimated $850,000 contributes less than 12 percent to a revenue trickle, down $1.3 million from its 2007 level and able to meet only 3.4 percent of town expenses.

Those kinds of losses have sparked the town's search for new sources of income.

So far, the board's discussions have not touched on prices for widely popular items like pool passes. But for those doing business with the town and its regulatory bodies, the fee changes could become substantial.

Take the planning department, for example. At present, it charges $300 to waive a subdivision approval, something the department grants only about twice a year. Increasing its fee to $500, planning director Jeff Osterman suggested, would add $400 in revenue, for a total of $1,000. But the board went further, more than tripling today's $300 charge and bringing it to $1,000.

Waiving  a site-plan approval today is free. While Osterman recommended instituting a $250 charge, the board doubled his number, suggesting a $500 fee. That would produce $3,750 in new revenue from an estimated total of 15 requests. No final decisions have been made on any of the fees.

Awhile back, as August was sliding languidly toward Labor Day, the board met informally late into the night, debating around pushed-together tables how to forestall what loomed as a hefty increase in property taxes. Inevitably, the talk crystallized in a simple calculation: cut the services Bedford provides or increase what it charges to provide them. Councilman Chris Burdick , opposing what he called any "Draconian reduction" in services, said he thought people preferred to pay a higher price for a service than  see it disappear. "That's just my gut feeling," he said.

Today, as November slides toward December's budget-adoption deadline, that gut feeling will likely undergo a real-world test.

The table below illustrates how declining mortgage tax and sales tax receipts are impacting the town's revenue streams. Calculations are based on the 2011 tentative budget. 

Editor's Note: The original version of this story gave the wrong number for the percentage of town expenditures that mortgage tax income is expected to account for. The story has been fixed to reflect the correct percentage.