Village taxes up 8 %

At a special meeting on April 4, the Island Park village board adopted its 2011-12 budget, which is about $110,000 larger than the current spending plan and includes a 7.8 percent tax increase for residents.

The budget has been cut in many areas while growing in others to meet the demands of expanding employee benefits and government expenditures. It also holds the line on salaries for all village employees and the Board of Trustees.

To finance the increases in the face of decreased revenues, the village increased taxes by 7.76 percent, bringing the tax rate up to $31.18 per $100 of a home’s assessed valuation. Overall, the budget would increase by $109,983, to $3,602,950 — 3.1 percent more than the current spending plan.

“Any time you raise taxes, I don’t like doing that,” said Island Park Mayor Jim Ruzicka. “But in today’s economy, what seems to be happening is that the state and federal governments cut back, and it affects the little [governments], because there’s nothing to cut.”

Because of concerns expressed by residents about quality of life in the village, Ruzicka said, the village hired another full-time employee, along with four seasonal employees for the summer, to help keep it clean.

Taxpayers will also be spending more on the DPW next year, due mainly to recommendations from an audit of the village by New York state. “One of the things from the state audit was they recommended we had a more realistic budget, so we looked at that,” said Ruzicka. He explained that the village had been slowly increasing the DPW funding but it would often fall short. This year it was increased to a more realistic number that should stop a budget shortfall.

Village revenue projections were down in fiscal year 2011-12, which begins on June 1. Everything from state aid to federal grants was lower. The village lost about $65,000 in revenue.

The decreases in revenue coupled with nearly $30,000 more in debt service payments and a $52,000 increase in contributions to employee benefits.

“This year we were doing good, but with all the cuts from the state and the increases, it just caught up to us,” said Ruzicka.

The village cut where it could, and implemented a wage freeze for next year. Ruzicka said he is nearly certain that the Board of Trustees and the mayor would not receive increases in the 2012-13 fiscal year, either. However, if the money was available, Ruzicka would have liked to increase the salaries of village workers.

“Our guys deserve a raise,” he said. “A lot of them don’t make that much money. But the pension fund and medical increased so much that we just couldn’t do it.

“They certainly deserve it,” he added. “Our employees work hard.”