Valley Stream village treasurer proposes $41.8m budget

Village of Valley Stream Treasurer Mike Fox handed the Board of Trustees a proposed $41.8 million village budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year at a board of trustees work session on March 19.
The $41.8 million budget would be a $2.9 million increase from the current budget. The total budget would include $40 million for the general fund and $1.7 million for the library fund.
According to Fox, payroll cost and health insurance costs are the main drivers of the increase. In an interview with the Herald, he said those costs account for 60-70 percent of the budget and added that the proposed budget included an 11 percent increase in health insurance costs.
“Sixty-seven percent of the budget is kind of out of our control,” Fox said. But the village will continue to negotiate payroll costs in collective bargaining agreements, he said.
Other increases came out of contract negotiations with the vendor at the pool and from new technology funding at the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library. To fund the increases, the tax levy in the proposed budget would increase by 1.99 percent, an average increase of $50 per year per taxpayer. The budget would remain less than the 2 percent allowable tax cap. “No votes to override the cap will be necessary,” Fox told the board.
At the work session, the Board of Trustees voted to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on April 9, followed by a vote to accept the budget. Copies of the proposed budget are now available at the village clerk’s office.