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Politics & Government

Greenport Budget Will Stay Within Tax Cap

A resolution giving the village the ability to pierce the 2 percent tax levy cap levy failed at Monday's village board meeting.

After listening to the public’s opposition to passing a law allowing the village to pierce the New York State 2 percent tax cap, the Greenport Village Board rejected a resolution allowing it to pierce the tax cap levy in its 2012-2013 budget.

Last week Greenport Mayor David Nyce proposed holding the line on a tax increase with a $2.79 million dollar budget, but he said it was strictly an operational budget which did not contain any money to pay down the looming village debt. Without those funds, the village will have come up with money to pay the outstanding village debt in 2014.

“We don’t hear about the debt during the budget process,” Nyce said. “In 2014, there is a bunch of money due and we don’t have it.”

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Nyce and Trustee David Murray voted for the resolution to allow the village to pierce the tax levy cap and Trustees Mary Bess Phillips, George Hubbard and Christine Kempner voted against it.

During Monday’s public hearing, village residents questioned why the village would even consider piercing the tax cap, when the budget did not call for a spending increase.

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Resident William Swiskey urged trustees to vote against the measure and to “live within our means.” He said he could not understand why the issue was even being raised this far into budget season.

According to resident Michael Solomon, if the mayor presented the budget in good faith then the law would not be necessary. Solomon said the village was not a wealth community and the people needed every nickel they had.

“Most of us have had enough. It’s time the belts get tightened,” Solomon said.

Nyce explained to the public, he is sticking with the same procedure he used last year when he proposed a $2.89 million preliminary budget. He said he presented an operating budget but then asked the board to set aside money to help pay down the debt.

It was always his intention, he said, to raise taxes incrementally to pay down the debt instead of paying a large lump sum in 2014. With the downturn in the economy, the mayor said the village had not been able to set aside money to pay down the debt.

Trustee Phillips said they received the budget on Friday and just had a chance to look it over. She questioned whether or not the board had additional time to make the decision.

Nyce said the board was originally supposed to hold the public hearing prior to the preliminary budget being released but the timing was off. Piercing the cap, according to Nyce, would help the village bring down the debt before 2014. If the village passed the law, according to Nyce, the board did not have to actually pierce the tax cap.

The village has until May 1 to adopt its 2012-2013 spending plan.

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