By: Chris Munzing
Coalition council members said they were able to avoid a tax increase by working late through the night in the week leading up to the hearing, eliminating three City Hall jobs and finally cutting their own salaries to get the budget down to where they needed it.
"It would've been very easy for us to say, 'We didn't know about [the previous administration's borrowing of] the $4.7 million,' and people would've believed us," said James Hennessy, City Council president. "Keeping our promise of a zero-percent tax increase was very important to us, and I think we took a step towards renewing people's faith in the city."
City officials cranked up their public relations machine this week in an attempt to counter a published report that the budget included a 1 percent tax increase.
The confusion comes, in part, because of the Long Beach homestead protection bill, proposed by Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and Sen. Dean G. Skelos and signed into law last week, that caps the total tax increase allowed for homestead properties (loosely defined as houses and many, but not all, apartments) at 1 percent. Meanwhile, the value of non-homestead property - particularly property owned by utilities - sharply declined since Nassau County's reassessment.
On top of that law, City Manager Glenn Spiritis said the city was able to add more than $1 million in revenue from the pending sale of the city's interest in Waldbaum's Plaza.
The total budget nets out to a zero percent increase, with a .76 percent increase for homestead properties and a 1.51 percent decrease for non-homestead properties.
In this budget, the positions of tax assessor, heavy-duty auto mechanic - both held by Democratic committee members - and water administration's supervisor of billing and collecting were eliminated.
The budget also calls for the elimination of six vacant police positions and two vacant firefighting positions. It reduces the detective ranks from eight to six and the number of uniformed officers from 50 to 46 while creating one detective sergeant.
The final budget also reflects the additional revenue of $1,110,736 that is expected to come from the sale of Waldbaum's Plaza.
Additionally, the budget calls for a $1,000 pay decrease for each member of the City Council. The final budget total is $65,992,860.
Mary Cammarato, the wife of outgoing Democratic Committee Chairman Eugene Cammarato, saw her position as tax assessor eliminated. Ralph Horowitz, like Mrs. Cammarato a Democratic committee member, will lose his job as heavy-duty auto mechanic.
Horowitz, in an unsuccessful publicity stunt last winter, tried to hand the City Council a check for the $10,000 that he said the city would save in eliminating his position. The council rejected the offer.
Both Cammarato and Horowitz have bumping rights within the civil service union, which allow them, with the elimination of their positions, to take over others.
That ugliness aside, the coalition council members were basking in their victory. "We're sitting here presenting Long Beach with a zero percent tax increase when we were faced with a $6 million deficit," council Vice President Tom Sofield said. "Enough pain has been inflicted on the taxpayers. We've gotten to zero."
"I think this amended budget makes some tough choices, but makes some responsible decisions," Councilwoman Mona Goodman said. "The people voted for change, and here it is. Here is your zero percent increase."
Remo and Kelly, however, said they were not pleased with the final budget and voted against it. Kelly was most concerned with the lack of a tax increase because, he said, it leaves the city unprepared for a rainy day in the future. Kelly recalled the zero percent increase the City Council approved in the late '90s as an example of the council taking political credit for not raising taxes while mortgaging the future. "Zero is not necessarily a good thing," Kelly said.
Remo said he believes that the one-shot revenues included in the budget, largely the sale of land owned by the city, are too speculative. "The current administration has taken a lot of advice from Moody's [Investor Service] on how to rectify the city's finances," Remo said. "Right up until Moody's said that land sales are not the way to correct your financial position."
"Remo and Kelly wanted to raise taxes," Hennessy said. "Too often, elected officials try to tax their way out of trouble. But we sharpened our pencils and reviewed every single line of this budget. We promised a zero percent tax increase, we delivered, and we will deliver it again next year."
