The East Hampton Village Board has set June 18 at 11 a.m. for a public hearing on its tentative budget for the fiscal year beginning Aug. 1. If approved as is, the $30.7 million budget will include a tax increase of a little more than 1 percent.
A resolution to schedule the hearing was passed at the board’s meeting on Friday, which saw some sniping about tax rates levied on village residents by East Hampton Town.
The budget’s priorities, Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, said, are to lower taxes when feasible, deliver high-quality services to residents, invest in infrastructure, strengthen the on-hand position to fund long-term capital projects, and reduce overall debt burden. The tentative budget, he said, does all of these.
The proposed tax rate is 31.44 percent. Estimated revenues are $15.29 million. The personnel budget is $13.62 million, an increase of $500,227. A surplus remains at $600,000, “which is extremely healthy, with our contingency account at $300,000 as well,” Mr. Baladron said. “It gives us a lot of cushion.”
Medical insurance will increase 5 percent, to $5.07 million. Employer retirement increases 19.6 percent, to $1.2 million, and police retirement increases 9.7 percent, to $1.62 million. Fire protection services will decrease by about $434,000, to $4.38 million.
Building Department permit revenues increase by $1.45 million, and new contractors registry and permit revenue is increasing rapidly, Mr. Baladron said.
The mayor and board members will see salary increases. Mayor Jerry Larsen’s salary will rise from $26,000 to $50,000, Deputy Mayor Christopher Minardi’s from $16,500 to $20,500, and the board members’ from $14,000 to $18,000. “As the responsibilities of municipal governance grow increasingly complex, compensation must reflect the level of work required,” according to Mr. Baladron’s message accompanying the tentative budget.
The budget must be adopted by July 31, or the tentative budget will become the annual budget.
“This is our first tax increase in five years since I’ve been mayor,” Mr. Larsen said. “We did not break the 2-percent cap, which is a state law. However,” he said, people should know that village residents receive a tax bill from the town as well as from the village. The village, he said, “has been very conservative and keeping taxes down,” and the proposed increase is “very small in comparison to what’s going on around us.”
Over the last four years, he added, “the town has increased our village residents’ taxes over 25 percent. That is something you should hold your town representatives accountable for, and find out why this is happening. It’s a little frustrating that we work so hard to keep the taxes down, and then we’re getting hit from the other side with huge increases.”
Eight years ago, he said, the average tax increase from the town was 1.88 percent, “and now it’s close to 7 or 8 percent each year.”
The town’s $103.9 million fiscal year 2025 budget, which took effect on Jan. 1, represents an 8.8-percent increase in spending over the previous fiscal year. The tax levy increased by about 9 percent. For a residence outside an incorporated village assessed at $1.14 million, the property tax increased by 7.7 percent.
“The village also pays for a lot of the infrastructure that’s front-facing,” the board’s Carrie Doyle said. “When you think of East Hampton — the parks, the streets, the beautiful village, the beaches, the pavilions — it’s the village taxes that are paying for that.”
Hashing Out Parking Fines
Also at the meeting, the board, following a memo from Chief Jeffrey Erickson of the Police Department, held a discussion about increasing parking fines, particularly for vehicles parked at village beaches without a permit and for overtime parking.
"We do issue a lot of tickets," the chief said. At the beach in particular, the $150 fine has proven insufficient to deter many violators. An increase, he said, may lead to greater compliance.
Mr. Minardi asked about the percentage of violators who pay the fine versus those who contest their violation, and noted that the latter are often assessed half of the fine at Justice Court. "I know the court has an agenda and they have a schedule, but it doesn't really seem right. . . . If you get a ticket, you should pay it." If the fine is increased, he said, "half of more is more."
The village's outside counsel "makes the decision if they want to plea-bargain a ticket down," the chief said. "If the board wants to hold a hard line on that, and if we don't want to plea-bargain down parking summonses, then we should probably let outside counsel know that that's our position, and either you pay the full fine or go toward a trial to prove your innocence."
The board will consider increasing the penalty for parking violations during a special meeting that has been scheduled for next Thursday.
There are persistent violators with thousands of dollars' worth of unpaid fines, the chief said, and on the topic of parking violations, the board also held and closed a public hearing that drew no comment before voting to amend the code pertaining to scofflaws.
Vehicles with three or more outstanding parking summonses, at least two of which were issued on separate dates, for at least 30 days will be impounded if found on any roadway, after a notice is mailed to the registered owner. A vehicle will be released to its owner only after fines are paid along with the cost of the vehicle's towing and storage, and any related administrative fees. Should a vehicle not be claimed, it will be deemed abandoned and sold at auction or transferred to the tow company.
