There was no comment on June 18 when the East Hampton Village Board held a public hearing on its fiscal year 2026 budget. Later in the meeting the board voted to approve the $30.7 million budget, which includes a tax increase of 1.28 percent.
The 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,” Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, said last month. “It gives us a lot of cushion.”
Medical insurance increases 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. Building Department permit revenues increase by $1.45 million, and new contractors registry and permit revenue is increasing rapidly, Mr. Baladron said last month.
The budget also includes salary increases for the mayor and trustees. Mayor Jerry Larsen’s salary will nearly double, from $26,000 to $50,000, Deputy Mayor Christopher Minardi’s increases from $16,500 to $20,500, and the trustees’ salaries will rise 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 a message from Mr. Baladron that accompanied the tentative budget.
During a discussion last month, Mr. Larsen made a point of noting that village residents receive a tax bill from East Hampton Town as well as from the village, and while the village “has been very conservative” to keep taxes low, the town has increased village residents’ taxes by more than 25 percent over the last four years. 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 village’s tax increase is the first “in five years since I’ve been mayor,” he noted.
The fiscal year begins on Aug. 1. At its June 18 meeting, the board voted to approve notice of its organizational meeting, on Wednesday at 11 a.m., and its annual meeting to close the fiscal year on July 30, also at 11 a.m. Both will happen at the Emergency Services Building.
Also at the June 18 meeting, the board voted to amend the 2025 budget to increase appropriations from the “assigned unappropriated fund” balance by $61,634.43 for expenditures related to the emergency trellis repair in Millstone Park, on Main Street. As previously reported in The Star, the ivy-covered trellis there fell over during a storm last month. A member of the Garden Club of East Hampton told the board this month that repair of the trellis constituted an emergency, as it obscured the “awful looking” wall of the adjacent building, at 61 Main Street.
