East Hampton OKs $65.6M budget

East Hampton's town board unanimously passed Supervisor Bill Wilkinson's proposed $65.6 million budget for 2012, a spending plan that will result in a 1.9 percent tax cut.

A last-minute change before the vote added $20,000 as a contingency fund, but it did not change the tax rate. Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said most of that money would support Project MOST -- a popular after-school program in the Springs school district.

The budget, adopted Thursday night, is nearly 2.5 percent higher than the current one, but the town was able to use surplus money from highway and sanitation funds to reduce the tax levy.

For the past two years, the town has been cutting expenses by merging departments, reducing services and not filling vacant jobs.

East Hampton was forced to borrow $30 million last year to cover debts caused by mismanagement by a former administration, and this year's budget carried a footnote from the town finance officer explaining that 7.8 percent of the general fund tax levy would go to paying off those bonds.

And, the town board was told, the same kind of footnote would be on every budget for the next decade. While the budget calls for no layoffs, Wilkinson said he has approval from the state to borrow money for a voluntary separation program, although none is being proposed.

The proposed budget also includes income from the sale of some town assets, with the money earmarked for further debt reduction. At the same meeting where the budget was approved, the town board agreed unanimously to hire an appraiser to set a value on the office condominiums the town owns east of town hall, which Wilkinson said could bring in more than $2 million.

The town hopes to get another $2 million from Southampton Town by selling its share of the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack. Southampton and East Hampton towns own the golf course jointly, and East Hampton has been trying to sell its half, providing their residents keep the same discount to play there as Southampton residents.