Islandia Village Board passes $3.9M budget with more spending cuts
Islandia Village Board members approved the budget Tuesday within five minutes of the meeting's start without discussing its contents. Credit: Newsday/Brittany Wait
The Islandia Village Board approved a $3.9 million budget Tuesday night, slashing spending by more than $1.1 million in the past two years.
The budget maintains a 50 percent reduction in property taxes from 2016, Mayor Allan Dorman said after the 4-0 vote.
Officials have credited the tax reduction in the 3,335-resident village to the addition of Jake’s 58 Hotel & Casino, whose owner, Delaware North, agreed to pay the village $47 million over 20 years. The video lottery casino opened in the hotel in February 2017.
Board members approved the budget within five minutes of the meeting's start without discussing its contents. Trustee Burhan Kisla and Village Attorney Joseph Prokop were absent from the meeting, and only four residents attended.
Officials did not give residents time to speak publicly because the vote was held during a village board work session, not a village board meeting, Dorman said.
Resident Olaf Olk, who attended the meeting, said he did not know what the budget entailed, nor about a public hearing on it until after the fact. The Nov. 13 hearing was not held during a normally scheduled meeting and was advertised in a legal notice in a local weekly newspaper, not on the village’s website.
“I have no idea how it will impact me,” Olk, whose wife Dianne Olk is a former Islandia deputy mayor, said of the budget.
Residents expressed similar concerns after a public hearing last year on a $3.97 million budget.
Other budget items include:
- Village expenses and revenues in 2019 will match at $3,900,962 each.
- Residents’ property taxes will be 0.81 percent, or 81 cents per $100 in assessed value. Assessed property values in the village total $111 million.
- $2.99 million of revenue is from sources other than property taxes, including $2 million from payment in lieu of taxes agreements.
- Spending will decrease by about 23 percent from 2017, when expenditures reached more than $5 million.
- The 2.2-square-mile village’s largest expense of $838,940 is for transportation, including snow removal and street maintenance.
- Village officials expect to have $308,609 in debt service in 2019.
Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.
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