Village looking at tough budget season

With the 2010-11 budget season looming, Village of Rockville Centre officials are girding themselves for what is sure to rile a tax-weary public—a property tax rate increase that they have said could exceed 10 percent.

A three-fold attack on the village’s coffers, officials said, is the main cause of the budget distress—decreased revenues from the village’s “economically sensitive” revenue streams, an increase in the state-mandated amount of money the village must contribute to state retirement funds as well as increased debt service payments from bonded items this year.

“All levels of government—beginning at the federal level, extending to New York State through Nassau County and finally at the village level—we’re all suffering financially to a certain extent as a result of the downturn in the economy,” said Village Comptroller Mike Schussheim. “Economically Sensitive revenues at all levels are not as strong as they were a few years ago, yet expenditures continue to increase unabated. And as a result, there are more pressures on all levels of government. Yet the village is managing fairly well, given this difficult economic time and we anticipate that we will continue to manage well given the challenges that lie ahead.”

Economically sensitive revenues include items like mortgage taxes and building permit fees—things people don’t generally spend money on when the economy is bad. The decrease in revenues has hurt the village. But not as much as the increase to the debt service the village is facing—a $420,000 increase from this year’s debt service of $2,837,000. Debt Service payments are made on behalf of the village for money that it has bonded—essentially paying back a loan.

In September, the village bonded $5.59 million for various capital projects, including $2.5 million for the 2010 road project.

“Most significantly, the New York State Retirement Systems, both the employee retirement systems and the police and fire retirement systems, are projecting very, very significant increases in their premiums for December 2010,” Schussheim said. “I’m projecting that, just for the General Fund, the increase in premiums will be about $700,000.”