Letters

This past month, I proposed the 2023-24 fiscal year Southampton Village budget, with help from our village treasurer and staff, department heads who put together their respective budgets, members of the budget and finance committee, and the trustee liaisons to the departments. I wanted to thank each of those respective groups for their excellent work. The process was a good team effort and in turn lead to an efficient budget.

Despite inflation, or Consumer Price Index, of over 6 percent this past year, the proposed village budget only increases spending by 1.7 percent, and the overall tax rate by 0.4 percent, while staying $970,641 below the state-mandated cap. This follows last fiscal year, when we had no increase in the property tax rate, and the 2021-22 budget, which decreased both the tax rate and overall spending.

The village now has a projected unassigned fund balance of $12.8 million, plus a recently created clean water infrastructure fund of $3.6 million. This is up from a fund balance of just $5.2 million in the 2017 fiscal year.

Also important to note is the projected 2023 outstanding bond indebtedness of $6.3 million, which is paid down from $10 million in 2018. The village maintains its triple-A bond rating, which was first achieved thanks to the work of prior boards, and our balance sheet is now stronger and healthier than ever.

This proposed budget would result in a net decrease in property taxes over a three-year period, while in this fiscal year a homeowner with a home market value of $800,000 would see an increase in their village taxes of $5.13.

This budget provides a 3.3 percent, or $502,354, increase in public safety funds, as we believe keeping the village safe is of the highest importance, and it is paramount to support all of our emergency services and first responder personnel. The budget adds a full-time position for a public safety dispatcher, and I also am open to amending this budget to add an additional full-time paramedic to augment our EMS department and improve safety.

This budget includes additional part-time code enforcement officers, so that we can increase our enforcement efforts, in particular for quality-of-life issues this summer and on a year-round basis. Since rolling out the SeeClickFix app, the village has solved 764 quality-of-life issues thanks to the hard work of the many outstanding village employees, and in particular the Southampton Village Department of Public Works, Police Department, and our public safety dispatchers.

I believe that this is a strong budget that keeps property taxes low, supports our public works teams and keeps our village safe. There will be a public hearing in April open to all to discuss.

Jesse Warren

Mayor

Southampton Village