East Hampton Adopts 2024 Budget With Only Slight Tweaks

The East Hampton Town Board unanimously adopted a $95.46 million 2024 operating budget on November 16, hiking spending by more than $4.8 million, or 5.3 percent, but forecasting a tax hike of just 1.38 percent for town residents.

The adopted budget was tweaked only slightly from the original version introduced by Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc in October. The approved spending plan is about $61,000 higher than what Van Scoyoc had proposed in his last budget before leaving office at the end of this year, which went primarily to additional employee salary adjustments and the finalization of a fire protection contract with East Hampton Village, the town’s Budget Officer Rebecca Hansen said.

The budget had already put particular emphasis on the need to increase salaries for its more than 300 full-time and 150 part-time employees as the town struggles to hire and maintain staff in key roles due to soaring local housing costs and traffic snarls that make commuting unappealing for those living elsewhere.

Last month, Van Scoyoc and the town’s employee union agreed to a new four-year contract that will hike salaries $2,000 across the board and give 4 percent annual increases for three years and a 5 percent increase the final year. The budget also gives raises to 13 union employee promotions to new posts that will come with higher salaries. It adds just one new employee, a supervisor post for the Ordinance Enforcement Department.

The $57.9 million dedicated to salaries and benefits is the largest chunk of the budget.

The adopted spending plan projects a lower tax rate than had originally been estimated, with the budget office now estimating that a home with a market value of about $1 million will see an increase on their annual tax bill of $18.37, while the same home in East Hampton Village would see an increase of $38.05 and a home with a market value of $2.7 million would see hikes of $45.93 outside the village or $95.12 for village residents.

The budget projects a substantial surplus from the 2023 budget that will push its reserve accounts to nearly $71 million, and boasts the top credit rating Aaa from the rating agency Moody’s, allowing for low-interest borrowing for capital projects.

“I think this budget is quite sound financially and will add to our very long history now of strong financial management, and I really appreciate the support that this board has given to make sure our finances are very solid,” Van Scoyoc said in his final budget message in October. “That’s where we are, and I expect will continue to be for years to come.”