Sag Harbor Village adopted its 2026-27 budget on April 17, ushering in an 8-percent tax rate increase. The $17.6 million budget is up over 10 percent from last year.
For homeowners, the increase will cost about $3 more per $1,000 of assessed value. For example, a house assessed at $1 million would see a tax bill increase of around $228.
Members of the village board have ascribed the budget hike in part to particularly large increases in engineering and consulting fees, necessary for long-term planning, review, and study of sewer districts as well as proposed construction and contamination mitigation on Bridge Street.
While the hike in those fees is 536-percent higher than what they cost last year, the actual budget increase is less jaw-dropping, at $350,000. Last year’s budget allotted only $55,000 for those fees, which wound up with the board having to find the additional $215,000 elsewhere.
Adam Potter has proposed an 81,000-square-foot mixed-use building on Bridge Street, partially on the former “gas ball” site, which is said to have been heavily contaminated by “forever chemicals” that National Grid was said to have failed to clean up entirely.
Another pending application for an apartment building, this one on Meadow Street, was determined this week to qualify for State Environmental Quality Review Act review.
Another increase, $195,000 in Planning Department costs (255 percent), was attributed to money needed SEQRA. Officials have cited large-scare projects that the department would need to review under the law.
That line item was also the subject of Mayor Tom Gardella’s censuring at the previous meeting; board members said he had attempted to eliminate its funding from the budget. In the end, the funding was included.
The village board also adopted the sewer fund budget of $1.19 million, an increase of 2.97 percent.
