Glen Cove City Council OKs $75M 2018 budget

The Glen Cove City Council has approved a 2018 budget that includes a 0.81 percent increase in the tax levy.

The vote was 4-2, with the two Democrats on the council — including mayoral candidate Timothy Tenke — voting no, and the four Republicans voting yes.

Tenke, Councilman Roderick Watson and several others who spoke at a public hearing on Tuesday preceding the vote criticized Mayor Reginald Spinello for a $75,161,494 budget that they said relied too much on nonrecurring revenue. 

They zeroed in on the budget’s estimate of receiving $1,963,000 in building revenue in 2018 — even though the building department had predicted only $533,000.

Spinello said “the building department did not have all the final numbers” when it made its estimate but does now. Most of the permit revenue this year and next will come from the Garvies Point waterfront development, he said. 

Marsha Silverman, a Democratic City Council candidate, pointed to a recent letter from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office, which said, referring to the building fees, that “the City should not use nonrecurring revenues to fund routine operations” because they are uncertain.

“We get criticized by the comptroller year after year after year” for relying too much on nonrecurring revenue, said Silverman, who called the budget “irresponsible.”