East Rockaway board of trustees approves $9.9 million budget

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The East Rockaway board of trustees voted unanimously on April 24 to approve a $9.9 million budget for 2017-18. The 2017-18 budget is more than $452,000 than the 2016-17 budget, with average homeowners paying $27.29 in taxes, 3.5 percent more than they were paying last year.

Village officials attribute this increase to contractual agreements and debt service payments. According to Patricia Renner, the village clerk and treasurer, the Civil Service Employee Association’s contract with the village expires in May, forcing village officials to renegotiate with the union. The officials also had to account for increasing health insurance premiums. The village was also already in debt, partially from costs associated with road repairs

“Roadwork is about $1.4 million per mile,” said Renner. “That’s expensive.”

The village also accrued debt from a new hook and ladder truck rental for the fire department and from the installation of energy efficient lights — which Renner said would actually save the village on energy costs. “If no one’s walking in the hallway, they’re dark,” she said.

The village also needed to pay off unforeseen expenses, such as repairs to drains that collapsed this year, as well as past administrations’ debt. Total debt service payments account for more than $1.4 million of the budget. “We did do a lot, but there’s still a lot to do,” Renner said.

About 70 percent of the funds for the budget will come from taxes, as the adopted budget pierces the 1.15 percent tax levy cap on municipalities. “The tax levy we are adopting tonight is 3.41 percent, meaning a property with a $3,000 levy would see their bill increase by about $100 for the year, or less than $2 a week,” Mayor Bruno Romano said at a recent budget hearing.

Residents will not have to pay a penalty for this tax cap, however, because the tax freeze rebate checks ended, according to Renner. These checks reimbursed homeowners whose property taxes increased, but would not provide these funds if the municipality that the homeowner lives in exceeded the property tax cap. This year, however, those who live in a school district that complies with the property tax cap, receive a basic or Enhanced STAR property tax relief, have an income of $275,000 or less and have paid school property taxes in 2016 will receive a check of $185 from New York State.

Dan Caracciolo, an East Rockaway resident, does not believe the budget should have been passed yet because the public did not have a chance to read it over before it was adopted. “I was handed the 2017–2018 budget and before I could really sink my teeth into it, it was adopted,” he said. “I plan on analyzing the data provided in the now adopted budget and coming back to the East Rockaway village [board] with specific questions.”

The budget goes into affect on June 1.