The Great Neck Park District board member’s approved a $16,670,079 budget on Thursday which calls for a 3.5 percent tax increase on the residents, but still meets the state’s 2 percent tax cap, park district officials said.
“In the end what this budget will cost the taxpayers is far less than we anticipated,” said park district Commissioner Ruth J. Tamarin.
The new budget will mean a $12 increase for a typical middle income resident that owns an apartment and a $21 increase for a typical middle income resident that owns a home.
“This year we started earlier than we ever had,” said acting Superintendent of Parks Peter Renick. “We knew it was going to be a tough year.”
Renick praised the work that Finance Director Stephen Kessler did on putting the budget together.
“He was shooting for that 2 percent cap and told everyone to sharpen their pencils,” Renick said.
The board held several meetings, getting input from the community and made additional cuts as necessary, Renick said.
“Not only did we cut things out of next year’s budget,” he said, “but we saw to cut things on this years budget where we could to save money.”
The cuts made on this year’s budget add to the fund balance for 2013, which alleviated many headaches, Renick said.
“Thanks to everyone’s help and cooperation I think we have a great budget,” he said.
The board also discussed concerns about how home property values and how they were being calculated.
“Nassau County is projecting that class 1 which is typical homeowners, their property value will decrease by 8.6 percent in 2013,” Kessler said.
Looking at the typical taxpayer in the Baker Hill section of Great Neck, last year the typical home was valued at $710,000, calculating that 8.6 percent decrease, that property is now assessed at $649,000. This year that homeowner paid a property of $632.00, next year that resident will see an increase of about 3.2 percent bringing their property tax total to $653.00, Kessler said.
Tamarin criticized the rhetoric coming from politicians regarding the housing market.
“I want to ask a question about the state’s decision to tell us that the price of homes are lower this year when all hearing is that the price of homes are rising again?” she asked.
