With a $35 million proposed budget, the village of Mamaroneck will tentatively remain under the state-imposed tax cap by just $8.
According to budget figures, if the tentative budget were to stand as is, it would mark the fifth year of staying under the tax levy cap since its enactment by the state Legislature in 2011.
Property owners will see a tax rate increase of 1.8 percent.
Despite the narrow success in remaining under the state levy cap—which is designed to help mitigate property tax burdens—the village will struggle, in tandem with many municipalities across the state, with budgeting for increasing health care and pensions contributions amidst waning revenues.
According to a budget memo, pension costs for the village have risen meteorically over the past 16 years, jumping from just $8,261 in 2001 to more than $2.6 million today. Currently, according to Slingerland, health care and benefits constitutes just below 20 percent of the village’s total tentative budget.
Behind those costs, Slingerland explained, has been a change—realized starkly over the past several years—in the way municipalities are required to contribute to state pensions.
Following the financial crisis in 2008, Slingerland explained that state pension funds—which consist of a wide array of investments, including bonds and other securities—lost much of their value. As a result, local municipalities have been forced to pick up the slack.
Compounding the impact of inflated employee benefits, according to Slingerland, is a tepid economy which has contributed to waning revenues.
Since 2007, the village continues to receive about $900,000 less annually from its main, non-property tax revenue sources—sales tax, parking, interest earnings, and mortgage tax—according to the budget.
As a result of both the expenditures on pensions and the declining revenues, according to Slingerland, the annual burden on taxpayers has been about 11 percent higher each year.
In the pipeline for the village will also be a slew of increasingly critical capital projects involving its Department of Public Works, DPW, facility, as well as 169 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, the multi-purpose building that houses its village and police departments.
According to a 2014 report issued by the village, as a result of space constraints, members of the Police Department must contend with internal and external security issues, including the frequent intermingling of prisoners and victims.
According to Assistant Village Manager Dan Sarnoff, while the improvements at 169 Mount Pleasant do not currently have a cost estimate, expansions at the DPW are expected to cost approximately $2.5 million. Neither project is currently funded in this year’s tentative budget.
In order to budget for those anticipated costs, Sarnoff said the village administration will recommend the transfer of surplus revenue funds for future projects as opposed to being directed back into the general budget.
