New Hyde Park Village Board Begins 2013-14 Budget Process

The New Hyde Park Village Board began their grappling with the 2013-14 village budget Tuesday night following their regular meeting at the village hall.

In the past year the assessed value of the total property in the village has fallen about $18,000 from $19,818,866 to $19,800,211.

“There’s been a lot of veterans’ exemptions that have been removed on a lot of properties, there’s infrastructure that’s been added in, there’s certiorari that’s been extracted out,” deputy mayor Robert Lofaro said in the auxiliary board room during the open work session.

The preliminary number for an increase this year is 6.39 percent rate, reflecting increased costs across the board, including a payment of $387,615 into the state retirement system, however the trustees stated that the rate increase was only preliminary as they do not yet have a completed budget. The board did pass a measure allowing them to raise taxes above the state-mandated two-percent tax cap if necessary.

Salaries are set to increase 3.8 percent according to contracts covering office and union staff, but management positions will not see an increase.

The village is also projecting a shortfall in parking fees, which it had previously increased on January 1 of last year. The prices for meter fees increased 50 percent last year to 25 cents for 30 minutes of time instead of one hour. Fees from parking meters fell from $157,537 down to $150,744. The village board decided to leave the projected revenue amount at $175,000 but stated that it could drop down to $165,000.

Parking vouchers also fell from $261,408 down to $246,918. The village projected $270,000 for the revenue line, but the number was noted as being an average of the last three years on how many vouchers were sold (about 80,500) and projected between 81,000-82,000 actual vouchers sold. The cost for a residential parking lot permit is $75.

Lofaro said he was “not inclined” to raise fees again but “if we find ourselves short we have to kind of find out where we need to get money.”

There was an exaggerated reduction of vouchers in November and December because of Hurricane Sandy and the ensuing nor-easter. The number of vouchers fell to 4,600 in November 2012, down from 54,00 from November 2011 before and 7,300 in November 2010.

“The 2012-13 year is when we did the increased rate but the volume is way down because of the storm so all things back to normal you should see a bump-up,” trustee Lawrence Montreuil said.

The village also cannot complete its budget since much information from the state has not yet been issued.

“There’s a lot of external inputs that we need,” Lofaro said, noting that as of February 5 the budget does not have projected CHiPs moneys, the state’s per capita number and insurance estimates including the medical insurance cost increase. Last year the village had a 3 percent increase, but had to absorb a 10 percent hike the year before.

In terms of revenue, New Hyde Park is projecting $31,000 in phone tax revenues based on number of telephone poles/lines, an increase of $1,000 at a 1 percent rate. Most of this line is due to the Verizon cable TV franchise in the village. Cablevision’s franchise fee will bring in a projected $60,000 to the village.

Street fair revenue increased last year due to the village having a sponsor but fell short of projections.

“At this point I would not budget for the revenue and let’s try to get the revenue,” Lofaro said. “It has to be structured, a marketing package put together, we have to determine the rates and then you go out to corporate and solicit; soliciting’s the easy part, we’ve got to put the marketing package together.”

Mayor Daniel Petruccio recommended going to a budget line of $16,000-$17,000 in revenue until a sponsor could be procured.

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