East Rockaway mayor touts actual tax cut

With municipalities and school districts across Long Island explaining tax increases as a function of rising labor and health care prices, East Rockaway's mayor is touting an actual tax cut.

"We did a line-by-line review," Mayor Francis Lenahan said. "Through the willingness of people in our departments, we were able to cut in areas where it wasn't necessary."

The village board on Monday voted unanimously to approve a 2011-12 budget that includes a 3.51 percent cut in the municipal tax rate.

The East Rockaway clerk-treasurer, Doris Piedimonte, said Lenahan and trustees managed the tax and spending cut with the retirements of the community's $152,000 village administrator, the $145,000 buildings superintendent and the $110,000 recreation director.

The administrator's duties were transferred to Piedimonte, Lenahan said, and the village has hired replacements for the building superintendent at a lower pay that Piedimonte would not disclose Thursday. The new recreation director will be part-time.

Lenahan, a former village trustee, was first elected mayor in March. Lenahan said the village will not cut municipal services, though the budget decreases two of three village holiday festivals from three days to one. Other cost reductions include a $233,000 savings in pension costs, $62,000 in reduction of programs at the village recreation department and $25,000 by hiring a less expensive village attorney.

East Rockaway also plans to purchase two new garbage trucks, Piedimonte said.

The village's adopted budget is $8,563,395. The average single-family homeowner will see a $94 decrease in their municipal property taxes, the village said. The tax rate per $100 of assessed value will go from $25.04 to $24.16, the village said.