I.P. village board adopts $4.8 million budget

The Village of Island Park’s board of trustees unanimously voted on April 20 to adopt the budget introduced by Mayor Michael McGinty last month, which will slightly decrease property tax rates.

Compared to the last fiscal year, residents are set to pay about $0.24 less per $100 of assessed value, according to the spending plan.

“We’ve accomplished it by a fiscally conservative approach to government and finance,” McGinty told the dozen or so residents at the meeting. “We’ve reduced spending considerably, and … we will continue that practice into the future.”

The nearly $4.8 million budget is about $250,000 more than last year, and puts funds toward rebuilding the technological side of the building department, as well as increasing and updating equipment used by the department of public works and the Island Park Fire Department, among other projects and village necessities.

Additionally, $162,000 in the budget — put into effect on June 1, the start of the fiscal year — is allocated for payments to the U.S. government pursuant to the settlement of a 1990 lawsuit involving Island Park’s alleged misuse of housing program funds aimed at helping members of minorities obtain homes in the community. The remaining $1.06 million that the village owes will be paid in monthly $13,600 increments over 78 months.

Though one resident questioned the details of the payments for the settlement at the April 20 meeting, others did not challenge items included in the budget. Only one resident attended the budget workshop the night before, which some said was because the meeting information was not posted on the website.

McGinty once again attributed the tax decrease, in part, to the village’s decreased debt service — or money required to repay interest and principal on a debt — which stands at $387,000 for the coming fiscal year. Last year, the figure was 568,000, and McGinty said last month that he and the board worked in “an aggressive manner” to decrease it.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, but here we are,” McGinty asserted about the budget. “We keep cutting, and watching our nickels and dimes.”