Lindenhurst residents would pay $55 more in taxes under proposed budget

Lindenhurst Village officials will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed budget that raises taxes 5.4%, piercing the tax cap.

The proposed 2020-2021 budget rises by nearly 5%, from $14.76 million to $15.50 million. The sanitation fee would increase from $228 to $236 per household, and the tax rate per $100 of assessed value would rise from $19.74 to $20.92. For an average single home with an assessed value of $4,000, taxes would climb from $1,017 to $1,072 annually.

Mayor Mike Lavorata said the village’s state aid was cut this year by $108,000, a 20% reduction. He said the coronavirus pandemic also caused about $1 million in lost revenue and that about 5% of residents have not paid their current tax bill because of job loss, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing tax revenue.

Lavorata said the village took a four-pronged approach to the proposed budget: reduce spending where possible; leave job openings through attrition unfilled; use $150,000 out of the surplus; and make up the remainder with a tax increase.

The mayor called the 5.4% hike "pretty remarkable from where we started," which he said was a 16% increase.

"It looks like we’re going to be in pretty good shape now this year," he said.

The proposed budget’s most significant increases come from capital leases, which would rise nearly $449,000, and in the highway department, with a budget increase of more than $279,000. Lavorata said the leases boost relates to the lease with Johnson Controls, which the village hired this year to make environmental and energy-saving improvements. He said the highway department increase is due to contractual raises for its 60 workers.

Other notable increases include more than $47,000 budgeted for vehicle repair in the department of public works and $45,000 for attorney fees related to efforts to remove squatters from some properties. There would also be a nearly $44,000 rise in salaries for public safety officers, Lavorata said, due to increased enforcement of social distancing rules.

The village’s largest department decreases include a more than $200,000 drop in sanitation worker and horticulture salaries due to attrition.

Lavorata said budgeting in a time of uncertainty over COVID-19 is difficult.

"With Superstorm Sandy, we had issues but it was specific to a number of properties," he said. "Here, with all the constant changes, you don’t know what’s going to happen and which numbers are going to work best."

The public hearing will be held via Zoom at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.