Glen Cove mayoral candidate concerned with city budget

Glen Cove Democratic mayoral candidate Timothy Tenke expressed concern during Tuesday night’s City Council work session that the 2018 city budget relies in part on nearly $2 million in building fee revenue.

“It seems like a one-shot thing,” said Tenke, a city councilman also running on the Working Families and Women’s Equality lines.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has in the past criticized the city for relying too much on one-time revenue.

The 2018 budget forecasts $1,963,000 in building permit revenue, mostly from the giant Garvies Point project, which is under construction along the waterfront.

As of Sept. 25, the city had received $157,012 in permit revenue, although $1,910,000 is budgeted for 2017, according to the proposed 2018 budget. The city received $1,447,109 in building revenue last year.

Mayor Reginald Spinello, an Independence Party member also running on the Republican, Conservative and Reform lines, said that even though building fees are “one-time” revenue from particular projects, they’re also recurring, in that the city receives some amount every year.

“They recur at different amounts, but you book what you think you’re going to get,” he said. 
As building fees for Garvies Point and other projects decline, “the real recurring revenue starts to come on,” Spinello said, referring to money the city will receive from tax revenue and payments in lieu of taxes.

But, Tenke said, “That’s a big number. Two million dollars.”

“You can worry,” Spinello said, “but I’m not. I know the numbers, what they are, and what’s coming in.”

A second public hearing on the $75,161,494 budget — the first was on Oct. 10 — will be held during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. The budget includes a 0.81 percent increase in the tax levy.