Thursday, October 1, 2026
Mounting health care and pension costs and a drop in the tax base are just some of the reasons why the Lynbrook Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a 2013-14 budget that features a 4.89 percent tax increase at its regular board meeting on Monday.
The spending plan totals just over $37 million, and has a tax levy increase — the total amount of money to be collected in property taxes — of 3.6 percent. The board voted to exceed the 2 percent tax cap in the next fiscal year at a meeting in November.
The largest increases in the budget include $360,000 in New York state employee and police pension premiums and $225,000 in health insurance premiums from the current fiscal year. Village Administrator John Giordano said he had anticipated the surge in health care costs, but added that they cannot rise as fast as they have recently forever. “We feel that with the escalation of the premiums … they’ve reached a certain level now where we’re not going to get these exorbitant increases in future years,” Giordano said.
Eight senior police officers are retiring from the Police Department, and will be replaced by lower-paid recruits. Giordano said that fully one-third of the police force is retiring within a four-year span. As a result of state legislation enacted last year, the village received $1.2 million in credit for low-interest bonds to ease its cash flow, and the money saved on salaries with the new recruits will go toward paying off the bonds, Giordano said.
Police officers can retire after serving at least 25 years in the department.
The village also anticipates receiving $200,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for overtime and cleanup costs incurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, as well as a $50,000 increase in Lynbrook’s annual highway improvement grant in the state budget. A more efficient recycling program and a renegotiated contract with Covanta Energy yielded a savings of $85,000.
