The Village of Massapequa Park has proposed a $6.1 million budget that stays under the state's tax cap, despite the fact the this year, to opt out of the tax cap.
The spending plan calls for a 9.890 percent tax levy, up from 9.653 percent in 2011-2012.
When the village opted out in January, Mayor James Altadonna indicated that the village was looking to keep it under the tax cap, which is based on the assessed valuation of property of the Village.
“Our current budget shows [money to be raised by the tax levy at] $3,850,425, so we came in under the tax cap that our Governor has suggested,” Altadonna said after Monday's Village Board meeting.
The New York State tax cap limits property tax increases to
two percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. In Massapequa Park that would translate into a 2.3 percent increase, but because of exemptions available to some taxpayers that ave to be fatored into thee budget, the actual levy will be about 2.4 percent higher than a year ago, village officals said.
Altadonna said the amount the village is rising from taxes is actually lower than it could have been under the cap.
“Under the tax cap, we were able to increase to $3,851,910," he said.
"With that being said, we are as lean as we possibly can be. We went by all the mandates in terms of the expected increases in terms of pension costs and health insurance.”
Although the mild winter didn’t cause the village to tap
into the snow removal budget last fiscal year, Altadonna still has plans to
make sure Massapequa Park will be equipped with the necessary funds and manpower for in case next year’s winter is not as accommodating.
“We also added additional monies [to the budget] for snow removal,”
he said. “I hope we get lucky again, but we have to prepare for the worst.”
The Board will vote on the proposed budget at the next meeting on April 23.
The Village also voted Monday to authorize the purchase of outstanding unpaid 2011-2012 taxes as of April 1, 2012 and granted permission for the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals to carry over their required training hours in excess of four hours.
At the end of the Village meeting, Kevin Walsh was sworn in for another term as Village Attorney.
