Democrats on the North Hempstead Town Council fended off a Republican effort to hold a budget vote ahead of the Nov. 5 election at Tuesday night’s meeting, over the objections of Councilwoman and Town Supervisor candidate Dina De Giorgio (R-Port Washington.)
De Giorgio, who has called on interim Town Supervisor John Riordan to recuse himself from voting on the budget, said the town had established a pattern of amending budgets to hike tax rates after election day.
“For the past two years, we’ve submitted a budget below the tax cap. And afterwards it is raised by 6 percent and exceeded the tax cap,” said De Giorgio, who is competing for the town’s top executive post against Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck).
But Riordan, who was appointed by the Town Council after former Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman left his post last month for a job on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s storm recovery taskforce, said the council was following standard budgeting practice.
“This issue of before or after the election is a red herring,” Riordan said.
In a 5-2, party-line vote, the Town Council set a Nov. 7 date for a public hearing on the preliminary 2014 town budget, which was submitted by Kaiman in his last official act before leaving office on Sept. 23 for a job in Cuomo’s administration.
A resolution proposed by De Giorgio to hold a budget vote by Oct. 30 also went along party lines with Democrats also prevailing in a 5-2 vote. The resolution by De Giorgio preceded the vote to set the hearing date.
The debate over the budget hearing sparked arguments along party lines.
At the outset of the budget discussion, Town Clerk Leslie Gross – a Democrat who is running for re-election on the Republican line against Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) – submitted a petition she said she had received from residents of Westbury, New Cassel and Mineola calling for a budget vote prior to the Nov. 5 election.
“In the past, things have been modified. They’ve switched things around,” said New Hyde Park resident Anthony LaPorta.
Riordan said he didn’t understand what LaPorta meant. Riordan said state law provides for a budget hearing to be held on the Thursday following the November election.
“That’s the outside. We can vote on it before then,” said Republican Councilman Angelo Ferrara.
Democratic Councilman Thomas Dwyer said the issue of voting on the budget before the election had not been raised before. Ferrara said it had been raised several times in prior years.
Ferrara also said he objected to Dwyer smiling as he was speaking. The two men began to engage in an argument that Riordan quickly interrupted.
Pointing his gavel in the direction of the two councilmen, Riordan, a former judge, said, “Hey, I have experience using this and I will. One person at a time.”
“I believe this is a good budget,” said Democratic Town Councilwoman Anna Kaplan.
Riordan said several of the people sitting on the council might not even be on the board to vote on the budget after the election.
The preliminary 2014 budget Kaiman submitted is $125,283,073, a 1.98 percent increase of $2,435,635 over the 2013 budget of $122,847,383. The proposed 2014 tax levy is $72,045,552, a 1.65 percent increase of $1,1677,532 over the 2013 tax levy of $70,878,020.
The state comptroller’s office has issued a guideline of 1.66 percent increases for tax levies municipalities and school districts set for proposed budgets this year.
Town comptroller Kathleen Mitterway said there have been minor amendments to the budget Kaiman submitted that decrease the net proposed tax levy by $75. Mitterway said the changes resulted from amended county assessments.
The Nov. 7 hearing will include a hearing on all special districts and the 2014 assessment rolls of the Belgrave, Great Neck and Port Washington pollution control districts.
Town officials said a final vote on the budget will be held later in November.
