East Hampton Village To Cut Taxes Again, Despite $2 Million in New Spending

East Hampton Village officials said that they will be able to cut taxes ever so slightly for the second year in a row despite a more than $2 million increase in spending — and some $800,000 in expenses shifted to the current year’s budget — thanks to soaring nontax revenues from building permits and beach parking fees.

The $27,891,211 proposed budget calls for a $2.13 million increase in spending, but also about $2 million in new nontax revenues. The tax levy on village residents will go up by $146,578, to $14,578,735, a slightly more than 1 percent increase. But the tax rate to residents is projected to fall slightly, by just 0.18 percent.

Most of the new spending is being driven by rising salaries and benefits costs for village employees — the cost of health insurance is rising $600,000 alone.

The village will add more than $300,000 to its payroll for emergency medical services, to cover the hiring of additional paid paramedics and EMT personnel to staff village ambulances after the departure of several volunteers in protest over the village’s seizure of control of the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance. Full-time paid medical personnel now cost the village $690,000 each year.

The village is also adding five new employees to its payroll: the newly created fire and EMS administrator, at a $165,000 annual salary, three additional police officers at $178,000, and two new full-time clerks for Village Hall, following the retirement of veteran Village Clerk June Lester over the winter.

“June had been here for so many years and had just kept taking new duties over the year that she was doing the jobs of two or three people,” Village Administrator Marcos Baladron said this week. “So when she retired, we saw we had to split that up between two people.”

Salaries make up some 48 percent of the village’s budget at just under $13 million. The largest chunk goes to the salaries for the East Hampton Village Police Department, which will total $5.28 million in 2023-24. Another $2.11 million goes to salaries for the emergency communications department, which handles all the dispatching duties for fire and ambulance services in the town and in Sag Harbor Village in addition to the Village Police.

The contribution to the retirement funds for its employees will exceed $2 million this year.

The village will pay an additional $168,000 in state-mandated payroll tax to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Baladron unveiled the village’s 2023-24 budget at last week’s Village Board meeting, applauding the work of Village Treasurer Dominique Cummings and the various department heads who helped his office craft the “zero-based” spending plan.

“In developing a fiscally responsible municipal budget, it’s my own personal philosophy that government should ask for what it needs and nothing more,” Baladron said in his budget message. “This year’s budget was guided by a simple philosophy: under-promise and over-deliver. We opted to keep our outlook extremely conservative for our FY2024 revenues and remain focused on expenditures that are imperative, appropriate and only deliver high-value services for taxpayers.”

Based on patterns it saw in the current budget year, the village anticipates revenues increasing from a variety of sources. The current budget projected just $1 million in revenues from building department fees, but has already roared past that number with two months left in the fiscal year and is likely going to approach $2 million for the year. The 2023-24 budget forecasts $1.25 million.

Revenues from the sale of parking permits and daily parking passes at the village’s five public beaches are projected to increase by more than $126,000.

The village this year also increased the amount it charges East Hampton Town for fire protection services in the Northwest Fire Protection District by $850,000 — a hike the town agreed to. Baladron said the additional fees were justified by an analysis of the expenses the village incurs to provide such sweeping fire protection. The East Hampton Village Fire Department recently purchased more than $4 million worth of new fire trucks that it will take delivery of later this year.

The budget will tap $600,000 in surplus reserves to offset some of the spending increase and reduce the need for tax revenues. The village boasts a $12 million reserve account — nearly 45 percent of the budget — fed largely by budget surpluses from previous years.

The Village Board will hold a public hearing on the budget at its June 16 board meeting and must approve the final budget by the end of the village’s fiscal year on July 31.