By Doug Miller
, claiming that the need to stabilize the city's future far outweighs any short-term need for tax relief.
The budget does not raise property taxes any higher than those in the current budget, which raised property taxes by 25 percent and, some city officials believe, resulted in a surplus of more than $5 million. Eaton said the proposed budget would increase spending by 2 percent but would not tap into the surplus or rely on one-time revenues such as property sales.
Civil service employees would get a 3 percent raise, firemen, 3.5 percent, and police officers, 4 percent. Those increases are agreed to in collective bargaining contracts. Exempt employees, which include public works employees, department heads and elected officials, would get a 4 percent raise.
"No surpluses were appropriated or dealt with to balance the budget this year," Eaton said. Instead, he pointed to increases in revenues such as interest from cash deposits, increases in utility gross receipts, and increases in ambulance charges, beach charges, court fees and state aid.
Eaton, who was rehired as city manager last year after serving in that capacity for more than 20 years, said that with the city in a positive cash position, he feels it is wise to invest the money in the city, particularly in infrastructure, rather than spend down the surplus and put the city back in a position where it is cash-strapped. "When I first retired in 1999, the city had a $3 million surplus," Eaton said. "Two years later it was gone." In 2003, the city was forced to borrow $3 million to pay for the retirements of several police officers, which had not been anticipated.
Eaton added that he considered the benefits of a tax rollback, but said he thought the money could do more good if it were invested. "I went downstairs to the tax assessor and asked, 'If I reduce taxes 5 percent across the board, what is that in revenue?'" Eaton said. "The answer was about $1.6 million. I said 'OK, now do me a favor and take my house and all the councilmembers' houses and figure out how much everyone would save.' The answer was from $50 to $120."
But in the wake of last year's record tax increase and allegations by the Republicans on the council that the tax hike resulted in the whopping surplus, GOP Councilman Jim Hennessy said that he and his coalition ally, Tom Sofield Jr., will demand a rollback. Hennessy and Sofield, along with Democratic Council Vice President Robert Tepper, are up for re-election in November.
"Last year the Democrats ripped off the taxpayer with a 25 percent tax increase, citing a potential $6 million to $11 million budget shortfall," Hennessy said in a statement. "They were crying that the sky was falling. Now they are telling us everything is great, there is a $5.7 million surplus and the city won't have to raise their taxes for the next few years? The whole thing sounds like a really bad con job: 'We'll take your hard-earned money now and then you won't have to pay us for a few years - and by the way, we'll use your money to get re-elected ... you didn't really need it anyway.'"
Public hearings will be held on Tuesday, May 15 and Tuesday, May 22, when council members will vote on a final budget.
To view a copy of the proposed budget, log on to www.longbeachny.org.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
