Valley Stream plans to exceed tax cap

Valley Stream’s Board of Trustees has been working on the 2013-14 village budget for several weeks now, and the public will finally get to see the proposed spending plan this Monday night.

At the annual budget hearing, the board will take comments on the $35.5 million plan, which would raise spending by about 2 percent. It would exceed the state property tax levy cap, but to do so the board must first pass a local law.

The tax levy would increase by 4.5 percent, to $26.2 million, which would mean a $104 tax hike next year for the average single-family home. To avoid an even greater tax increase, officials plan to use $850,000 of the village’s reserves.

Village Treasurer Michael Fox said that in order to meet the 2 percent tax cap, Valley Stream would be limited to a spending increase of about $500,000 — which, he added, is impossible, with pension and health insurance costs rising a combined $610,000 and gas and oil costs going up 13 percent. Increased fuel costs have affected almost everything the village buys, from chalk for the athletic fields to street light bulbs.

Personnel costs account for about 75 percent of the budget, so officials are looking to trim the work force. Mayor Ed Fare said that the full-time staff is down 4 percent since he took office two years ago, and there is room to trim further. But most village board members said they want to avoid layoffs.

Dissension over the budget

At a budget work session on Monday, board members were divided on the direction of the village’s finances. In a rare public display of contention, they disagreed over offering village employees a retirement incentive. Fare, Deputy Mayor Dermond Thomas and Trustees John Tufarelli and Virginia Clavin-Higgins favor it, but Trustee Vincent Grasso said he has reservations.

“I just don’t see the savings,” Grasso said, adding that he believes past retirement incentives have been poorly managed. He cited instances in which an employee retired and then came back, either in a different part-time role or as a consultant. Fare said that two of 14 employees who chose the 2010 incentive came back in a limited role; one remains.