The Village of Lake Success will have a public hearing on its proposed $14.92 million budget on Monday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., following a postponement from its original April 9 date.
The $14.92 million tentative budget, which would begin on June 1 and run through May of next year, is $138,381 higher than the current $14.78 million budget.
Village Administrator Patrick Farrell said the hearing on the budget had to be postponed because officials needed to clarify the tax levy, but he does not expect the village to pierce the tax cap.
‘We’re going to be under the tax cap and everything is pretty much the same [as past budgets],” Farrell said on Tuesday.
Public safety makes up the biggest portion of the proposed budget, totaling $5.23 million – a $205,267 increase from the current $5.03 million budget. The largest portion of this would come from the Police Department, whose expenses would total $5.15 million, or $215,112 more than its current $4.93 million budget.
Of that $5.15 million, $3.71 million would go towards base salary, $230,000 toward overtime, $170,000 to night differentials, $355,100 toward Social Security, and $150,000 to the termination fund.
Police retirement costs, listed separate from the department costs, are expected to breach $1 million, going up from $968,700 in the current budget. The budget allots $30,000 for police dental insurance, a $2,500 decrease.
Taken together, the second biggest expense is undistributed benefits totaling $3.4 million. This includes $1.02 million for police retirement, $1.79 million for health insurance, $286,883 for workers’ compensation, and employee state retirement costs worth $287,929.
Other items in the undistributed benefits include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and disability, collectively worth $10,200.
Workers’ compensation would rise from $259,487 to $286,883, while employee retirement benefits would go down from $296,150 to $287,929. Employee health insurance benefits will increase from $1.61 million to $1.73 million.
Overall, undistributed health benefits are slated to rise from $3.21 million to $3.4 million.
General government support, worth $2.38 million, is slated to increase $176,070 from its current $2.2 million. This includes the operation of buildings, legal staff, the finance department, energy costs, commercial insurance and other items.
The next biggest item would be debt service, which would decrease from $2.44 million to $2.02 million. Payments towards serial bonds would be $1.77 million rather than $1.92 million, while bond anticipation payments would more than halve from $517,055 to $247,495.
Transportation-related costs, including street administration and maintenance, street lighting and snow removal, are budgeted to decrease from $980,233 to $967,481.
Culture and recreational costs, associated with the tennis courts, bathhouse, local pool and local parks are budgeted to decrease from $491,937 to $479,462.
Home and community service costs, which include a refuse and garbage contract, are proposed to go up from $414,900 to $430,315. This is primarily with the cost of the contract rising from $405,400 to $420,815.
