State scolds Elmont F.D. on budget filing flaw

A recent delinquency citation by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is part of a years-long pattern of financial scolding of the Elmont Fire District, which has made some residents skeptical of the district’s budget.

Last week, DiNapoli’s office reprimanded the district — along with more than 56 percent of the state’s 882 fire districts — for recently passing a budget without filing tax cap data with the state. The filing deadline was Nov. 4, which fell within days of the Elmont F.D. Board of Commissioners’ 2012 budget vote.

Fire district budgets are the first to be subject to the new 2 percent property tax cap law, which was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June.

According to DiNapoli, state law requires fire districts to file their proposed budget data for review by the comptroller’s office prior to adoption of their budgets, in order to ensure that the districts’ tax cap calculations are accurate. If a local tax levy is adopted in error, he added, any funds collected in excess of the allowable cap should be placed in reserve, and used only to offset the tax levy in the following fiscal year.

According to the comptroller’s office, a week prior to holding the majority of the state’s fire districts delinquent, the comptroller’s office mailed warning letters and called 613 tardy districts, many of which took immediate action to file with the state. The Elmont district was not part of that group.

Robert Leonard, a spokesman for the district, said that the filing error was due to “an administrative issue regarding the filing of the electronic form on the comptroller’s website,” but declined to comment on whether the comptroller or the district was responsible. “The Elmont Fire District’s budget was prepared, reviewed and processed through all of the normal procedures, including a hearing,” Leonard said.

He added that subject to the commissioners’ vote, the district’s budget would result in a tax levy in excess of the 2 percent cap. According to the tax-cap law, a taxing body can override the cap if its budget is approved by more than 60 percent of voters and it passes a resolution acknowledging that the cap was exceeded.