The New Hyde Park Board of Trustees on Tuesday reviewed its $6.06 million budget proposal for 2015-16, which would keep spending mostly flat but raise the tax rate and levy slightly for the next fiscal year.
The budget proposal is about $46,000 higher than the current year’s adopted budget, a less than 1 percent jump.
But the tax levy would increase by about $74,000 or 1.77 percent — staying just below the state-mandated cap — to $4.2 million.
“I think we put together what is a responsible budget,” New Hyde Park Mayor Rob Lofaro said, adding the village was “conservative” in its estimates and expenditures.
The tax rate for residents would also go up by $0.41 to $21.37 per $100 of assessed value, a 1.96 percent increase, according to the budget.
The median household in New Hyde Park, with an assessed valuation of 5,400, would pay an additional $22.14 in taxes, village budget documents say.
The tax rate increase offsets a projected 1.51 percent dip in non-property tax revenue, spread between a number of small decreases, and a $28,000-plus decrease in total assessed value in the village.
The assessment change, Lofaro said, is due primarily to commercial property owners settling assessment grievances.
“It’s not so great for everyone else because that reduction gets spread, out and it has to get made up by everyone else,” he said. “But for residents and commercial [property owners] that are over assessed, it’s not fair that they’re paying more than they should, either, so it creates a more fair and equitable distribution.”
A large portion of the proposed spending increase stems from $20,000 included in the budget to pay for water and maintenance costs of the new median sprinkler system on Jericho Turnpike.
“It’s the first full year we’ve had it,” Lofaro said. “We might be overestimating – we did the best we could.”
For the current fiscal year, Lofaro said, there were thus far no “wide” variances from budgeted expenses and revenues for 2014-15, but it is too early to tell whether the village might be left with a small operating surplus or deficit.
“We’re not forecasting coming in up or down at this point,” Lofaro said.
Lofaro said the village also benefitted from its contract with union employees, who he said negotiated in good faith and agreed to raises roughly in line with inflation and the tax cap.
“The good news is that the union employees realized we had a restrictive amount [under the tax cap]. They negotiated in good faith with us,” Lofaro said. “That was very helpful in our budgeting process that they understood our constraints and helped us stay within those constraints.”
Retirement expenses also dropped by about $65,000 in 2015-16, which Lofaro said is because the village completed paying the incentives for several employees who retired under incentive.
The public hearing covered a line-by-line review of the proposal, during which a couple residents asked for minor clarifications but no changes.
The village clerk said the board will adopt the budget at its next meeting on April 21.
