2017-18 Rockville Centre village budget stays under cap

The Rockville Centre Board of Trustees voted to approve the village’s proposed fiscal year 2017-18 budget at its April 3 meeting. The average village residential property can expect a real estate tax increase of just over $65 for the next year.

The 2017-18 budget will stay underneath the state’s tax cap requirement, which limits increases to the village’s tax levy — the amount of its budget paid for through property taxes — to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The levy accounts for nearly $29.2 million of the $44.7 million total budget and will increase 1.66 percent over last year.

Village officials noted that there would be no cuts to services.

According to Village Comptroller George Scheu, the property tax rate for a residential home will be $49.10 per $100 of net assessed valuation. The average assessed valuation in the village for a residential property is currently $7,838.

This is the fifth year in a row the village has managed to keep its budget underneath the cap and it is the lowest real estate tax increase in 24 years, according to village officials. However, Mayor Francis X. Murray said at the meeting that since budgets are formulated on a year-by-year basis, there is no guarantee that the low increases would continue going forward.

In January, the board held a public hearing in preparation to introduce a law allowing the village to pierce the 2 percent tax cap as a safety measure. Since the 2017-18 budget does not pierce the cap, the village will no longer have to implement that law.