Floral Park exceeds 2 percent tax cap with $29.88M budget

Rebecca Klar
Trustees Kevin M. Fitzgerald and Archie T. Cheng are running unopposed in the village elections on March 18. (Photo courtesy of the Village of Floral Park)

The Floral Park village board unanimously adopted a $29.88 million budget that exceeds the 2 percent tax cap during an April 17 meeting.

The budget is $1.5 million more than the 2017-2018 budget.

The tax levy is 2.93 percent.

The tax rate per $100 of the assessed value of a house is $13.32 – a 32 cent increase from the prior year.

During an April 11 meeting, the board voted unanimously to have the ability to override the 2 percent tax cap.

The tax cap, introduced in 2012, is an effort on behalf of the state to eliminate villages, according to Trustee Archie Cheng and Mayor Dominick Longobardi.

“The law is designed to eliminate the Village of Floral Park,” Longobardi said. “Now everybody chose to live here for a reason, and we respect that tremendously and we will make sure we maintain that despite whatever New York wants to do,” Longobardi said. “Also, we will maintain that within reason for what people need to do to be able to live here.”

Trustee Archie Cheng asked how the village is supposed to stay within the 2 percent tax cap when the health insurance costs are expected to increase by 8 percent for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

The total budget for the village is $32,295,816, including the $1.28 million library fund, approved by a separate library board, and the $1.12 million pool fund.

The Floral Park Police Department costs account for $6.8 million of the $22.88 million budget. There is a 1.05 percent increase in the police department budget from the 2017-2018 year.

Included in the budget is the purchase of a new police vehicle.

The department currently has 20 vehicles in use, three of which have been in use since the 90s, two since the 2000s, and the remainder since 2011, Cheng said.

There is also a 4.18 percent increase in the budget allotted for the fire department.

The total budget for the fire department is $408,800; it includes $3,500 for new uniforms and $15,000 for new radios.

There is also $1.4 million allotted for a contingent account, which may go toward settling labor negotiations with the civil service employees association and the police department.

The negotiations are going on their third year, Longobardi said.

The negotiations are open again starting June 1.

The $1.4 million in the contingent account can also go toward future snow removal.

“Whatever is leftover we can put back into savings,” Longobardi said.

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