47.0°,
Mostly Cloudy A $100 increase
Village raising taxes, Rec Center fees next year
On March 5, the Village of Rockville Centre posted a draft of its 2015-16 budget on its website, revealing a tax increase of about $100 for the average homeowner.
The village usually unveils its spending plan closer to its board of trustees meetings, but this draft was posted online far in advance of the meeting. Under the proposal, the village tax rate would rise from $45.86 to $47.16 per $100 of a home’s assessed value, an increase of 2.83 percent. (Last year, taxes rose 4.44 percent.) Taxes account for about 65 percent of the village’s revenue. The total budget would be just under $43.2 million, an increase of more than $500,000.
“I believe the 2016 tentative budget balances the need to hold down taxes and not impact the services that residents have come to expect and enjoy while staying under the [state-mandated] tax cap for the third year in a row,” said Mayor Francis X. Murray. “The spending plan we are putting forth is the product of a great deal of work by the village, our comptroller and our department heads to hold down costs wherever possible. We will continue to look for ways to reduce costs and seek out opportunities that bring in additional revenue to the village.”
“I think we’ve done a very effective job in controlling our expenditures,” said Comptroller Michael Schussheim. “The negotiated wage increases for both the PBA and CSEA unions are very reasonable,” he added, referring to the police and Civil Service unions. “And we constantly monitor our purchasing of equipment and supplies, and we make sure only what’s necessary is purchased.”
Though the tax increase is small, there are some big changes tucked away in the budget. Miscellaneous revenue — revenue that doesn’t come from taxes — is down more than $220,000, mainly from a drop of more than $400,000 in payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that the electric and water departments make to the village.
