The Town of North Hempstead’s 23 special districts operated by commissioners have a combined budget nearly the same as the town’s budget, but unlike the town the commissioner operated districts are not restricted by .73% state tax cap.
Combined, the total budgets of the commissioner-operated special districts totals $125.5 million, just $700,000 less than the $126.2 million town budget approved on Oct. 29.
Some $90.4 million of the $125.5 million is to be raised by taxation.
Each commissioner-operated district determines its own budget, subject to approval by the Town Council. The budgets of the commissioner-operated special districts were approved by the Town Council on Thursday along with the town budget.
The 23 commissioner operated districts include the Port Washington Business Improvement District, fire districts in Garden City Park, Manhasset-Lakeville, New Hyde Park, and Westbury, garbage districts in Carle Place, Glenwood, Port Washington, and Roslyn, the Shelter Rock and Gold Coast library districts, the Carle Place Library Funding District, park districts in Great Neck and Manhasset, the Port Washington Police District, the Belgrave, Great Neck, and Port Washington Water Pollution Control Districts, and water districts in Albertson, Carle Place, Garden City Park, Glenwood, Manhasset-Lakeville, Port Washington, Roslyn, and Westbury.
The largest budget of the districts comes from the Port Washington Police District with a budget of $20.58 million, up .41% from 2015’s budget of $20.49 million.
The Great Neck Park District had the second largest budget at $18.75 million.
The third largest budget was the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District with a $10.16 million budget, up 2.13 percent from 2015’s $9.95 million budget.
Great Neck Water Pollution District had the fourth largest budget at $9.08 million, which was the same as 2015’s budget.
The fifth highest budget was for the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire District at $7.57 million, up 1.22 percent from their 2015 budget of $7.48 million.
The biggest increase among the commissioner-operated district budget was the Garden City Park Fire District, which increased spending from $2.72 million in 2015 to $2.99 million this year, a 9.97 percent increase in spending with a 9.82 percent increase in taxes.
The district’s largest budget increases came from a $167,000 transfer to the Capital Reserve Fund and a $50,000 increase to the Service Awards Program.
Efforts to reach Garden City Park Fire District officials were unavailing.
The New Hyde Park Fire District saw the second biggest increase in spending, going from $3.82 million in 2015 to $4.2 million this year, a 9.71 percent increase in spending with a 9.73 percent increase in taxes.
A $293,000 transfer to the Capital Reserve Fund was the biggest increase in the district’s budget.
Efforts to reach the New Hyde Park Fire District were unavailing.
While they had a 3.38 percent increase in spending from $4.43 million in 2015 to $4.58 million this year, the Roslyn Water District had the largest increase in taxes by 13.75 percent.
Roslyn Water District Superintendent Richard Passariello said the tax increase was primarily due to additional costs to the district for a $20.8 million bond that was issued for numerous projects and treatment facilities being built for the removal of chlorodifluoromethane from the water.
The Garden City Park Water District had the second highest increase in taxes at 9.58 percent. Their budget increased 4.71 percent from $4.12 million in 2015 to $4.32 million this year.
The district’s largest increase was $95,000 for operating equipment.
Efforts to reach the Garden City Park Water District were unavailing.
While increases in spending for some meant increased taxes as well, the Great Neck Park District increased their budget but did not raise taxes.
Their budget increased 6.86 percent from $17.55 million in 2015 to $18.75 million this year.
Great Neck Park District Commissioner Robert Lincoln said the budget increase was due to employee raises and benefits, equipment replacement, maintenance of facilities, and normal inflation.
He said the budget included revenue producing programs and services. Fees collected from program participants offset the need to increase taxes, he said.
“We are able to avoid increasing taxes to a large extent because of this increase in revenue,” Lincoln said. “We are also applying reserves funds to the income side of the budget. Through efficient management we are able to give these monies back to the taxpayers without cutting services.”
The Manhasset Park District decreased their budget this year by 15 percent to $1.53 million from 2015’s budget of $1.8 million, but the decreased spending did not lead to a decrease in taxes.
Efforts to reach the Manhasset Park District were unavailing.
The Albertson Water District decreased spending 2 percent this year to $3.12 million from $3.19 in 2015, but increased taxes by 1.37 percent.
Efforts to reach the Albertson Water District were unavailing.
The other budgets approved by the Town Council were:
Westbury Fire District, which increased its budget from $3.86 million in 2015 to $4.05 million this year.
The Carle Place Garbage District , which increased its budget from $948,852 last year to $957,467 this year.
The Glenwood Garbage District, which decreased its budget to $66,821 from 2015’s budget of $68,150.
Port Washington Garbage Removal, which increased its 2015 budget of $2.2 million to $2.33 million this year.
Roslyn Garbage District, which increased its budget to $560,129 this year from last year’s $545,845.
The Shelter Rock Public Library, which increased its budget to $4.17 million from their 2015 budget of $4.15 million.
The Gold Coast Library District and Carle Place Library Funding District’s budgets remained the same at $1.6 million and $845,000, respectively.
The Bellgrave Water Pollution Control District’s budget increased this year to $3.73 million from 2015’s budget of $3.66 million.
Port Washington’s Water Pollution Control District budget decreased from 2015’s budget of $6.45 million to $5.98 million this year.
The Carle Place Water District’s budget increased to $2.86 million from last year’s budget of $1.9 million.
Glenwood Water District increased its budget to $481,704 from 2015’s budget of $479,922.
The Port Washington Water District increased its budget to $5.8 million from last year’s budget of $5.47 million.
Westbury Water District increased its 2015s budget of $4.76 million to $4.97 million this year.
