BY JOE SCOTCHIE
jscotchie@antonmediagroup.com
It’s budget time again for villages in the Roslyn area and proving, once again, the old adage that a government closest to home is the most efficient, the Village of Roslyn Estates Board of Trustees have approved another fiscally responsible budget that keeps spending and revenues to a minimum.
The 2016-17 budget calls for $1,500,075 in spending. As always, the bulk of expenditures goes to fire services and street maintenance. The road renewal portion of the budget calls for $80,000 in expenditures, as the village embarks on longterm road improvements. The trustees found plenty of places to control spending. The combined budgets for the trustee, mayor, court clerk and village justice portions of the budget is less than $20,000. In addition, there are several portions of the budget which have been eliminated. This year, there will be no expenditures for the following segments of the budget: grant officer, deputy clerk, account/audit, litigation attorney, water district air stripper, refund of permit fees, park equipment, historian, sewer engineer, sweeping and cleaning and shade trees.
On the revenue side, real estate taxes account for $1,110,100 in real revenues. The bulk of the rest of the revenues comes from consolidated highway aid, state aid grants, permits and sewer assessments.
“On behalf of myself and the village’s board of trustees, I am proud to announce that we have approved a $1.5 million budget that makes provisions to begin substantial long term road improvements this year with only a 2.5 percent increase over the prior year’s budget,” said Mayor Jeffrey Schwartzberg. “In fact, over the past 6 years, tax increases in our village, have averaged less than 1.5 percent annually, or about $43 per home. Each year our board accepts the challenge to develop a fiscally responsible budget that maintains or improves services with minimal impact upon our property owners. This year is no different.”
In other villages in the area, the Village of Roslyn Board of Trustees approved a $4,922,293 budget that contains no tax increases.
The largest village in the area, the Village of East Hills, also, for the sixth consecutive year, delivered a budget with a zero tax increase. The budget amounts to $12,589,053 in spending. Mayor Michael R. Koblenz touted the village’s continued high bond rankings from both Moody’s and the state’s Stress Tests.
