Property tax unchanged in town budget

The Town of Oyster Bay held a public hearing on its proposed 2023 budget on Tuesday, giving the town board and other government officials an opportunity to explain and highlight some features of the spending plan, and giving residents a chance to ask questions.
Supervisor Jo-seph Saladino unveiled the budget on Oct. 13, and announced that this would be the sixth year in a row that property taxes would not increase, thanks to his and the town board’s fiscally responsible handling of the town’s finances over the past five years.
“Our town board continues to ensure fiscal stability while delivering the highest level of services to our residents,” Saladino said last week. “This balanced budget continues to build on our overall financial success — which has been recognized with seven credit rating upgrades from two independent Wall Street firms — while restricting new spending, freezing property taxes and making smart investments in our roadways.”
The firms Saladino referred to, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, provide credit ratings for commercial and government entities.
The proposed 2023 budget would increase spending from $311 this year to roughly $320 million. According to the town’s finance director, Robert Darienzo, there four major factors driving the increase. The first is salary increases. Town employees will receive a 3 percent increase, according to their union contract, a total of roughly $2.2 million.

The second factor is the increasing cost of gas and fuel for town buildings and vehicles — up by as much as 45 percent in the past year — which will add roughly $1.5 million to the budget. The third large increase is the cost of hauling garbage. Darienzo explained that the town had seen a significant increase in waste tonnage during the coronavirus pandemic, and that expense, too, would rise by $1.5 million. The last major item was a $2.1 million increase in interest rate band costs, which are what banks apply to the town based on Oyster Bay’s finances.
Despite those increases, Darienzo stressed that the town is in a stable and solid position financially. “The headline is that we are keeping our taxes flat for the sixth consecutive year in 2023,” he said. “It really is amazing, in this era of increased inflation and supply chain issues and prices going up everywhere . . . that we’re able to see an increase to our overall level of spending while being able to still maintain our taxes at the rate they are now.”
The town’s surplus has also swelled to $62.2 million, a stark contrast to its $44 million deficit just six years ago.
Councilman Steven Labriola expressed some concerns about the town’s ability to handle a potential national recession, which many financial experts are expecting over the next year. “I think the big concern for our residents, as well as us as board members, is, are we prepared?” Labriola asked. “Has this budget put us in a place where we are prepared if things should worsen as opposed to getting better?”
Darienzo affirmed that in his opinion, the town is as well prepared for any unexpected financial upheavals as it could be.
No residents spoke during the public comment section of the hearing.