Murray: Hempstead prepared to freeze taxes

Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray promises to freeze all town taxes for 2012.

"I am working with my colleagues on the town board and will present a tax-freeze budget that is accountable to taxpayers later this year," Murray said in a statement Wednesday. "We will be able to do this because we have adhered to the simple yet profound Boy Scout credo, 'Be Prepared.' "

Though the proposed budget isn't legally due until Sept. 30, Murray and the board are already working in hopes to present it before the mandatory deadline, said town spokesman Michael Deery.

The town could freeze taxes because it prepared for the economic downturn by creating a multiyear fiscal plan and adjusting such budgeted amounts as mortgage recording revenue, officials said.

"Unfortunately, many other governments did not prepare and plan for the recession, leaving taxpayers to deal with painful cuts in government services and exposing future generations to the fallout of staggering budget deficits," Town Councilman Anthony J. Santino said in the statement. "Kate Murray and I will not take taxpayers down that path."

The 2011 budget froze the town's general taxes.