East Williston trustees approved a $2.46 million budget on Monday night, with a roughly 1 percent increase in the taxy levy but not the tax rate due to a change in assessed value in village properties.
The $2.46 million budget is about $108,080 lower than the adjusted 2017-18 budget, worth $2.56 million, or about 4.2 percent. The tax levy, meanwhile, rose $20,775 from $2 million to $2.02 million – a change of about 1.04 percent.
This change in the tax levy but not the rate is due to an increase in taxable assessed valuation in the village increasing $24,551 from $2.36 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year to $2.38 million, village officials said.
One of the biggest changes came with the appropriated fund balance. While the village had budgeted $141,253 for it in the 2017-18 fiscal year and projected spending $211,804, according to the budget, it did not spend any through February 2018.
Now the village anticipates allocating $40,996 from the appropriated fund balance, village officials said, due to East Williston Avenue renovations and “timing differences” between when money’s actually expended and when it’s budgeted.
The water fund, which handles water purchases, studies and repairing relevant infrastructure, has a $724,700 budget – about $31,430 lower than the 2017-18 adjusted budget of $756,130.
Total capital fund expenditures are slated to be $235,000, or $7,000 lower than last year’s adjusted budget, for items like road work, LED street lighting, fire department radios and other work.
The fund transfers, which send money to the library, debt service, and capital funds, are slated to decrease from the $847,031 budgeted in the previous budget to $682,875.
The actual amount expended through February, $674,994, wound up much lower than the village’s projection that it would transfer $930,531 to the three funds.
This year’s budget allocates $120,000 to the library, $50,000 towards capital – a decrease of $130,000 from the previous budget –and a $512,875 transfer to debt service, which is $43,701 less than last year’s budget.
In total, the debt service fund’s expenditures are budgeted to be $552,091, or $38,192 lower than in the previous budget.
The library is projected to spend $139,397, with $120,000 coming from the interfund transfer, $10,892 from the appropriated fund balance, and the rest coming from a collection of state aid, donations, fines and fees.
The budget also includes money for a surveillance camera system for Devlin Field, officials previously said, in hopes of curtailing vandalism in the Little League fields and the tennis courts.
General government support costs, which support village staff, the courts, engineers, insurance costs and other items, will increase $24,574 from $476,715 in fiscal 2017-18 to $501,289.
Transportation-related costs, including street maintenance, snow removal, street lighting, will remain roughly the same, decreasing only $200 from $134,500 in fiscal 2017-18.
In unrelated village business, officials also moved to approve the appointment of Barbara McWhirk to the library board and the reappointment of Michael Delury as village treasurer.
Tanner also noted that they planned to reappoint Michael Holland as Board of Zoning Appeals chair and Roger Cocchi to the planning board, Lauren Shannon to the library board, Lucie Decsi as a BZA member and Emil Samuels as Associate Village Justice.
“There’s not an epidemic, they’re not all sick,” Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente said, drawing laughs from attendees, “it’s just some of them are away.”
