New Hyde Park Village Board Reveals Tentative 2012-13 Budget

The New Hyde Park Village Board revealed a tentative draft of the new 2012-13 budget Tuesday night at the . With a total budget of $5,842,985.18, the village is proposing an increase of $252,214 from . The tentative tax levy is proposed at $4,001,149.63, which is $118,149.41 more than last year, or 3.37 percent.

The tax rate for 2012-2013 will be $20.19, up from last year’s $19.53. The average assessed household in the village, with an assessed valuation of $5,400 would be required to pay an additional $35.64 a year in village tax. The total village assessment roll as of April 1, 2012 is $19,818,866, which is down $65,576.

The village board had voted to allow itself to exceed the 2 percent tax levy cap limit set by New York State. This draft of the 2012-2013 budget was $18,963.63 over the limit. But the board is not going to distribute that extra money over their budget just to say the stayed withing the limit.

“This has been very challenging for the board,” deputy mayor Robert Lofaro said. “We’ve had lot of discussions about this because the 2 percent tax cap was an arbitrary number that New York State picked. They could have picked three, but instead they picked two. If we found $20,000 and put it on the revenue side we would be in the tax cap but that would be a one time amount that really wouldn’t cover our expenses that occur on a more regular basis.”

The village is anticipating $1,841,835.55 in other revenue for the 2012-2013 year, which is $94,065 more than last year. From the tax levy and interest from unpaid tax penalties, the village is expecting $4,008,389.91. In addition to property taxes, there are utilities that generate revenue such as electric, gas, television and phone. In total, the village is anticipating an additional $285,000. There are also departmental incomes like clerk, permit and registrar fees which add up to $4,003. Money will also come from transportation income. The money from parking lot permits, parking meters and parking vouchers will come to $515,960.

“We did last year,  from 25 cents an hour to 25 cents a half hour,” Lofaro said. “We did raise the vouchers from $3 to $4. So again, this is the full year effect of this increase. It is very important we have income other than property tax.”

Here are some of the highlights from the proposed 2012-2013 budget:

• The village is expecting medical, dental and vision expenses to be $683,446, an increase of $28,608 from last year’s budget. The village is now requiring new hires and any board members or elected officials to contribute between 10 percent to 15 percent towards their medical, dental and vision expense.
• State retirement expenses are projected to be $23,125 more than last year’s budget. The total amount for the 2012-2013 budget year was $357,714.
• Workers compensation insurance expenses are expected to rise to $150,850, which is $22,500 more than last year.
• The total village assessment roll of $60,666 represents a decrease in tax revenue of about $12,800.
• Personal services expense increased 3.8 percent to $49,056.
• In anticipation of higher expenses, the budget proposes an increase of the appropriation for diesel fuel to $25,000.
• The proposed budget is expecting an increase of $25,000 in revenue from Cablevision and Verizon.
• Transportation revenue from parking meters and parking vouchers are expected to increase by $37,000.
• In anticipation of offsetting expenses, consolidated highway improvement program (CHIPS) revenue has been increased by $76,000.

The  was also included in the budget. “In order to keep our road projects going on a two, two and a half year basis, we made a commitment in our budget to fund either bond installments or road improvement lines to the tune of about half a million dollars as a discipline,” Mayor Daniel Petruccio said. “So in years where the budget is heavier on the bond number, we have less road line money and in the years where it lightens up, we put money into the road repair line.”

Lofaro also said regarding the project that $100,000 of the principal of the bond “is completely satisfied so our debt will go down to $346,000,” but to fund the 2012 project, a vote will be taken within “the next couple of weeks or so” on taking on addition debt for the road improvements.

The deputy mayor also said that the village is projecting ending the 2011-12 fiscal year with a surplus “for a number of reasons,” including spending only 12 percent of the snow budget and the receipt of  “so that addition expense was not charged to us.”

With the tame winter, the village was able to , but is opting to save that money in a fund instead of spending it and decreasing the budget.

Lofaro explained that the village is not moving any surplus money into the budget because “we might hit the 2 percent tax cap this year but what happens next year? We may have to raise the taxes twice as much because we didn’t have the right amount of money.”

Added Petruccio: “We went through this several times and we debated it. There were some ways to take some money and we discussed some wind falls like the snow line and things like that. You could easily, for cosmetic purposes, drop this amount of money into the budget and say you hit the cap but we didn’t feel it would make sense for us. We are trying to establish a discipline that we could use year-in and year-out and be confident in the numbers.”

The deputy mayor added that the village “may actually be getting moneys back for the theater grant. This money will help replenish and get us to a point where we feel we have enough unappropriated moneys in the event we feel we need to fix the roof in village hall or an unexpected event occurs.”

Lofaro said that some of the unappropriated money has been spent, so these extra revenue will help ensure the fund is not depleted.

“In the last 2 years we actually spent a lot of the surplus of the unappropriated money to pay off of employees who had retired,” Lofaro said, noting the village was still paying retired village employees for their unused sick days and vacation days. The village has spent about $250,000 of the $500,000 fund balance.

The board still has to vote on the proposed budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Once it has been voted on, the exact numbers will be made available.