The Village of Flower Hill’s proposed budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year has been revised to reflect the potential impact of the coronavirus.
Flower Hill’s Board of Trustees held a special meeting March 23 to introduce a tentative budget for 2020-2021. The proposal was prepared by the village’s finance committee, which includes Mayor Robert McNamara, Deputy Mayor Brian Herrington and Trustee Randall Rosenbaum, with the assistance of the village staff.
“When we started the budget process several weeks ago, the world was a different place and we had a very different economic projection,” McNamara said in a statement. “With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to rework all of the budget numbers in one week to take into account potential impacts on projected revenue and our operations.”
Current year-over-year’s expenditures are estimated to have been cut from $4.15 million this year to $3.91 million next year. The village is waiting on the updated tax roll from Nassau County to finalize the tax rate and is also “awaiting confirmation” from the state of New York.
The budget accounts for a projected revenue decrease of 6 percent, primarily in building permits, business permits, and mortgage tax collections. Expenses are cut by as much as 20 percent across village departments to reflect the decline.
In addition, the village will see a $70,000 mandated increase in the Roslyn and Port Washington Fire Districts’ tax collections and has put most non-essential projects on hold. Funds are still earmarked for legal proceedings, including the village’s suit against ExteNet Systems, which sued the village last year after the board of trustees rejected its applications to build 5G cell nodes.
“We are all unsure of how long the public health measures will remain in place, but we tried to assume at least several months,” Herrington said. “Obviously, such measures will impact employment for some of our residents, real estate transactions, home construction, and other activities that impact Village revenues and expenditures.”
He added, “We felt strongly that we needed to protect our taxpayers and as we move toward final approval and get more information, we may need to consider additional revisions to the budget. The good news is our prudent fiscal management in previous years has put our village in a situation with healthy reserves to offset the negative impacts of this crisis.”
