The village of Larchmont has created its first draft of its 2016-2017 municipal budget, which, as it currently stands, is $18.2 million, a 1.97 percent increase over last year’s budget.
To stay within the tax cap, the village would have to make approximately $390,000 in cuts. However, the village Board of Trustees has already voted to allow itself the ability to override the cap, although village officials have yet to determine if they plan to do so.
Further, the village also has to deal with a budget gap of about $460,000.
Property taxes are projected to increase by 3.05 percent if the budget is adopted in its current construct.
There is $480,500 set aside for capital budget projects, according to Village Administrator Justin Datino.
Some of those projects, which are not specifically in the budget line items, include computer and equipment upgrades for the Police Department and Village Hall, $8,500, new vehicles and equipment for the Department of Public Works, $50,000, preliminary design documents for an expansion plan for the second floor of Village Hall, $15,000 and improvements to both the Police and Fire departments, $22,500.
Datino added that $113,725 from village coffers will be set aside for road resurfacing, which is in addition to $116,000 the village receives from the state.
Datino said that in terms of salary increases, the Police, $168,509 in total, and Fire, $49,242 in total, will both receive raises as identified within their contracts. However, the current budget does not include proposed raises for non-union village employees. There are no layoffs proposed in the tentative budget as it stands.
Although the current budget exceeds the tax cap of 0.12 percent by 0.38 percent Datino indicates that there are a few ways to stay within the cap, including the possibility of staff reductions in the Fire Department, Department of Public Works and part-time clerical staff positions. In addition, recommended replacement of village computers may be put on hold, and improvements to the village’s Department of Public Works communication radios could be cut from the capital budget. Other possibilities include stretching the road life of police patrol vehicles from 4.5 years to six years, and putting repairs to village curbs and sidewalks on hold.
“This budget preserves the delivery and quality of all of the services the residents have come to expect. It does it in a very fiscally conservative way,” Datino said.
Some of the major increases attributed to this year’s tentative budget include salary increases, debt services, health insurance and workers’ compensation insurance, making up the majority of the increase over the current budget.
Mayor-elect Lorraine Walsh could not be reached for comment.
