Glen Cove Mayor Pam Panzenbeck has proposed a $70 million budget for 2027 that would increase spending by nearly 2 percent and raise the city’s property tax levy by 1.83 percent, as City Council members question whether anticipated revenues will support the spending plan.
Presented at Tuesday’s council meeting, the proposal would increase spending by $1.34 million over the current budget. It includes $58.87 million for the general fund, $4.38 million for water, $6.64 million for debt service and $793,000 for insurance.
Panzenbeck said that rising pension contributions, health care premiums and salary increases remain major financial challenges. At a pre-council meeting last week, she said the city had begun negotiations with the Civil Service Employees Association.
“It’s always difficult to construct a budget, considering how much is required to upkeep the city,” she said, “especially contending with significant, uncontrollable costs, such as employee pension contribution and health care costs.”
Personnel-related expenses account for roughly $44 million, or 75 percent, of the general fund. The proposal includes increases of $1.27 million in full-time salaries, $862,000 in pension contributions and $355,000 in health care premiums.
The property tax levy would rise from $33.33 million to $33.94 million, an increase of just over $609,000. Although the residential tax rate would decrease 10.59 percent because of higher assessed property values, Panzenbeck said that a home assessed at $805,000 would see an estimated annual city tax increase of $97.81, or 2.82 percent.
The proposed levy is approximately $525,000 below the state’s allowable property tax cap.
“It has always been our goal to provide our residents with every city service they currently receive while continuing to improve the landscape, infrastructure and quality-of-life issues in our beloved city,” Panzenbeck said.
The budget anticipates around $3.17 million in sales tax revenue and $286,000 from a proposed hotel occupancy tax expected to take effect next April. Those projections come as Glen Cove faces financial challenges. The state comptroller designated the city susceptible to fiscal stress based on its 2025 financial performance, and officials have acknowledged a revenue shortfall this year.
During the meeting, resident Walter Costanza asked what happened to sales tax revenue the city expected under its revised arrangement with Nassau County. Panzenbeck said that the city didn’t receive the necessary county waiver in time to collect the anticipated revenue this year, but expects the arrangement to take effect in 2027.
“We actually get it from the state directly,” she said, adding that the city expects to continue receiving assistance from Nassau County.
“We have had our issues in the past,” Panzenbeck said. “We’ve climbed out of a hole. We’ve dipped down a little. We will get past this.”
After the meeting, Councilman John Perrone described the presentation as informative. “I found it to be complete,” he said. “Of course, we need to digest more of what’s in the budget on how we got to the bottom line.”
Perrone expressed concern about relying on sales tax revenue the city has not yet received. “Let’s be honest: This entire budget is balanced on the money from the county or from the state, whichever way ( Panzenbeck) gets it,” he said. “It’s all balanced on the sales tax money. That’s $3 million. The budget is balanced because $3 million is a big difference if it all of a sudden isn’t there.”
Perrone said he wanted assurances that the money would materialize.
Councilwoman Danielle Fugazy Scagliola also questioned the revenue projections in the wake of what she described as two difficult budget years.
“The city’s in a very hard position after two bad budgets in ’25 and ’26,” she said. “We need to really look at this ’27 budget.”
Fugazy Scagliola asked whether projected increases in Building Department revenue, Code Enforcement collections and parking fines were realistic. “Everything is increased in our revenue line, from building department to code,” she said. “If we didn’t hit them in 2026, how are we going to hit them in 2027?”
She also questioned the certainty of the sales tax and hotel occupancy tax revenue estimates. “We really don’t know how much money that’s going to be,” she said. “That’s a guess. The other issue is that there’s been no mention of how we’re supposed to close the gap for 2026, the budget gap.”
Panzenbeck said her administration has worked to control spending while maintaining services, and that residential tax increases have averaged less than 1 percent annually during her five budget cycles.
“I will continue my mission to eliminate wasteful and non-essential spending, manage down expense growth where possible throughout the city, and deliver a broad set of government services to support our community,” she said.
The council will hold a second public hearing on the budget on Oct. 27.
