East Hampton Town’s 2024 budget, issued in tentative form on Friday and examined by the town board at its meeting on Tuesday, would grow by just over $4.7 million, or 5.256 percent, over the 2023 adopted budget, to $95.4 million.
Under the tentative budget, the tax rate for residents living outside an incorporated village would increase by 1.6 percent, and residents living inside a village would see a tax rate increase of 7.99 percent.
A property outside of a village with an assessed value of $4,000, or a market value of $1.08 million, would see an increase of approximately $21.29 in its town taxes if the budget is adopted in its current form. A similar property inside a village would see an increase of $40.13. The town, Becky Hansen, the budget officer, told the board on Tuesday, “is able to provide a multitude of services” to residents “for a very small proposed tax increase.”
The tentative budget remains under the New York State-mandated 2-percent property tax levy cap by $41,485. “The town continues to work under the cap,” according to Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc’s budget message, “while funding required or contractual items such as salary increases per contract agreements and health insurance, while still coping with increased costs for goods and services due to inflation.”
Along with those increasing costs for goods and services, the town faces competition from other municipalities and the private sector for employees. “We do also continue to face challenges as far as recruiting and retaining personnel,” Ms. Hansen said.
Many of the spending increases are related to personnel, she said, with 60.75 percent of the budget related to salaries and benefits. The town has almost 200 employees represented by the Civil Service Employees Association union, with negotiations for a new contract ongoing. It also has 20 department heads, 79 sworn police officers and public safety dispatchers, and 16 appointed class employees. The town also employs approximately 100 year-round part-time employees, and more than 150 seasonal staff were employed last summer.
The tentative budget includes promotions for 13 employees, which would add around $100,000 in expenditures, Ms. Hansen said. It also proposes the addition of a supervisory employee in the Ordinance Enforcement Department.
The budget provides financial assistance to nonprofits including the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, I-Tri, the Family Service League, the Retreat, the South Fork Community Health Initiative, and food pantry programs. This year, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce is also to receive funding, to assist with litter removal in the hamlet’s downtown, as is Ruta–27 Programa de Ingles, an organization that provides English-language teaching services to residents and is seeking office space and money for its ongoing operations.
The tentative budget continues funding for the Hampton Hopper, for both its seasonal Montauk shuttle service and the South Fork Commuter Connection’s “last mile” shuttle buses that take workers to and from Long Island Rail Road stations.
On the revenue side, “some nontax revenues are flat and have decreased a little bit, just based on trends that we’re seeing,” Ms. Hansen said. “The town does still maintain very healthy fund balances in all of its major funds.” The town has more than $70 million in reserves and fund balance, she said, and the tentative budget proposes just over 8-percent usage of some of those fund balances and reserves.
Board members were still going through the tentative budget on Tuesday, but Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, citing increased food costs, asked that Montauk’s senior citizens nutrition program, which serves around 350 meals per month to those 60 and older, receive an extra $10,000 on top of the $120,000 now allocated. Mr. Van Scoyoc indicated his support for that increase.
The board and Ms. Hansen will discuss the tentative budget again on Tuesday and, if necessary, on Oct. 17. A public hearing will follow, before the budget is adopted at the board’s Nov. 16 meeting, four days ahead of the state-imposed deadline.
