East Hampton Town Stays Under Cap
A tentative 2017 budget for East Hampton Town presented this week by Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell calls for $75.1 million in spending, a 1.8-percent increase over 2016.
The budget relies on $50.4 million in taxes. If it is adopted, the tax levy would increase by 1.3 percent, a hike that is within the state-mandated cap on property tax increases.
Tax rates in East Hampton Town, outside the incorporated villages, would rise by just over 1 percent, to $29.70 per $100 of assessed value. In East Hampton Village and the portion of Sag Harbor that lies within East Hampton Town, rates would decrease by 3.9 percent, setting a rate of $11.25 in taxes to be paid per $100 of assessed property value.
At those rates, the owners of a house in East Hampton Town with a market value of close to $1.7 million would pay $31.90 more in taxes this year; if the property is within village boundaries, the tax bill would go down by $46.20.
For properties outside of the villages with a market value of $678,000, taxes would go up by $12.76; they would go down by $18.48 for properties in the villages.
The spending plan, wrote Mr. Cantwell, includes money to improve lifeguard protection, adding a third lifeguard stand on the downtown Montauk beach, and to post beach attendants at several beaches to keep bathrooms clean and keep litter in check. There will likely be one attendant to cover Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue beaches in Amagansett, another for the downtown Montauk beaches, and a third stationed at Ditch Plain, Mr. Cantwell said yesterday.
The budget also includes money to hire police officers to replace those who are leaving the town’s employ, and to add a laborer to the Highway Department staff.
Grants to outside civic, social service, and cultural organizations remain largely the same under Mr. Cantwell’s proposed budget for next year. A new $10,000 grant to Meals on Wheels has been proposed, to help the organization avoid cutting back its services, and $4,500 has been added to help the I-Tri youth athletics program pay for relocating its swimming sessions to the pool at Gurney’s Resort when the East Hampton YMCA RECenter, where they normally take place, closes for a time this year for upgrades and repairs.
The budget “reflects salary and benefit costs for existing employees,” Mr. Cantwell wrote in a budget memo. Concurrently, he said, expenses have been brought down through cutting the town’s outstanding debt and through the permanent closure of the scavenger waste plant.
Officials have hewn to a policy over the last several years of retiring more debt than accruing it. The town’s total indebtedness next year is projected to be over $94 million, down from $146 million in 2009.
Debt payments next year will total $12.5 million, representing more than 16 percent of the annual budget. Employee salaries and benefits account for 59 percent of the proposed budget, or $44 million, and other expenditures, the rest.
The town expects to end this year with surplus balances in each of its major budget funds, a factor that has contributed to recent upgrades in East Hampton’s credit rating. Surpluses in the two operating funds are expected to be in the $10 million range, representing surpluses of 37 and 39 percent.
A highway fund will end the year $2.3 million in the black, it is anticipated; the airport fund is expected to have a $1.3 million surplus at the end of 2016, and the sanitation fund is expected to have $1.6 million.
Discussions of the proposed budget will take place at town board work sessions on Oct. 11 and 18, and a hearing, at which the public may offer comments, will be held on Nov. 3. The board is expected to vote on the budget at its Nov. 17 meeting.