The Village of North Hills will hold a public meeting to discuss a new local law which authorizes the village to override the state’s recently enacted 2 percent tax levy cap on spending.
Village of North Hills Mayor Marvin Natiss said he received an e-mail from the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials which recommended that all of Nassau Counties 64 villages enact an override law in case it was needed.
“They want us to have the law in place just in case in the future you have to use it,” Natiss said. “They said that you can’t have a 2 percent tax cap when next year you are looking at a 5 to 6 percent increase in taxes. In my case I don’t think we’ll need to override the cap, because I like to run a tight ship.”
Under the 2 percent tax cap law, villages will require approval of 60 percent of their village board to pass the override law.
Barbara VanEpps, deputy director for the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials Barbara, said the conference is recommending that villages “strongly consider” adopting the override law to help prevent certain pitfalls that may occur if villages make an error in their filings.
“This is the first year this law is going into effect, and there are a number of unanswered questions in its implementations,” VanEpps said. “For instance if you make a clerical mistake and miscalculated your levy and have $500,000 more in your budget, the provision in the statute says, you are going to have to take that $500,000 and put it into a reserve fund.”
VanEpps said that the state comptroller’s office is doing all that they can to make it as easy as possible, but the fact is it’s a brand new law and its complicated, and enacting the law is only a precautionary measure.
“Just because you pass the law doesn’t mean you have to override the levy,” VanEpps said. “If you don’t know how it’s going to fall out or you’re concerned, then you might consider passing it, just to protect yourself.
