East Rockaway officials propose $10.3 million budget

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At the April 9 meeting of the East Rockaway board of trustees, officials proposed a 2018-19 budget of $10.3 million. If approved, it would be a 4.1 percent increase over the current budget.
Mayor Bruno Romano said that the main factors for the increase were unfunded mandates and contractual costs, citing increases to the cost of hydrant rentals, which the village has to pay to New York American Water. The auditor’s contract would also increase by 500 percent because of contractual expenses for new federally required reporting.
Romano also said that the village had to pay for increases to employees’ health insurance costs and contractually obligated wage increases for Civil Service Employee Association union members. The CSEA’s contract with the village expired last May, which forced officials to renegotiate with union members.
“These extraordinary budgetary pressures are not unique to East Rockaway, they’re in fact faced by employees in both the private and public sector across the nation,” Romano said before opening a public hearing about the budget.
To fund the increases, the village proposed a $7.4 million tax levy, which is an increase of less than 5 percent. That figure is based on projected taxes, but is set to change slightly when the board votes to adopt the budget on April 23. The proposed tax levy increase would pierce New York state’s 2 percent tax cap. Romano said it was necessary to pierce the cap because the village is receiving less revenue than it has in previous years.

“Although we’re maximizing efficiencies and cutting discretionary spending, we simply cannot ignore that Nassau County has terminated the distribution of sales tax to all county villages,” Romano said, “while New York state grant funding to villages such as East Rockaway has also, for all intents and purposes, been eliminated.”
According to Romano, a homeowner that is now paying $3,000 would see his or her bill increase by about $150 if the tentative budget is approved. Offsetting the costs to residents are increases in payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, insurance recovery and recreation department revenue, which doubled.
The board of trustees is expected to vote to adopt the budget on April 23. The tentative budget can be revised until that time, and will be made available on the village’s website at villageofeastrockaway.org.