The Village of Munsey Park is anticipating a 5.9 percent decline in revenues in the next fiscal year, but trustees have budgeted for a 10.8 percent reduction in overall expenditures for 2015-16.
That’s because one of the village’s major projects, the restoration of Copley Pond, was completed during the 2014-15 fiscal year.
This will result in related construction expenses coming off Munsey Park’s $1,873,229 budget and various grants and gifts from village organizations will also no longer be reflected in revenues, officials said.
Munsey Park trustees adopted the budget at the conclusion of a public hearing Wednesday that coincided with the village’s annual reorganization meeting and the swearing in of new Mayor Sean Haggerty and trustees Frank DeMento and Patrick Hance, who were re-elected in March.
The budget includes a 1.6 percent increase in the village’s tax levy — from $1,215,210 in 2014-15 to $1,230,129 in 2015-16, falling within state mandates — and $643,100 in other revenues, including $125,000 in state highway funding that officials said would be put toward a major road improvement project.
“A lot of the time, the difference is just a few dollars here, a few dollars there,” Haggerty said. “There’s not really a lot of money freed up for us to throw around.”
Hance, whose board responsibilities include maintenance of the village’s insurance and finances, and who provided an overview of the budget during the hearing, said taxes were due to increase because residents have had success in challenging their property tax assessments with Nassau County, which increased the village’s tax rate 1.09 percent and decreased the village’s net assessed value from $2,383,818 in 2014-15 to $2,362,376 in 2015-16.
Approximately 66 percent of the village’s overall revenues in the next year are due to come from property taxes, according to the village’s budget document, with 10 percent to come from state aid and 8 percent to come
