Islip faces tough budget choices

Islip Town, faced with soaring retirement and health care costs, has an uphill battle to keep its supervisor's pledge of a zero percent tax increase for 2012, officials said Wednesday.

At what officials said was Islip's first open budget work session, department heads from various agencies presented their proposed budgets to the town board. Many said they are doing more with less, hiring more part-timers and trimming wherever possible.

"The budget is still a work in progress," said town Comptroller Joseph Ludwig, adding that the biggest challenges are increases in state retirement contributions and health insurance costs. The New York State Comptroller's Office has said the town will have to increase its state retirement contributions by about 19 percent, Ludwig said. Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which provides town employee health insurance, estimates costs will rise by 18 percent, he added.

Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan, who has stated he wants no tax increase next year, said, "We are extremely mindful of the difficult times facing our constituents and our goal is to deliver a budget as lean as we can with the ultimate goal of no tax increase for 2012."

Ludwig said he expects to work with department heads to finalize figures once the number of retiring employees is known. "We're going to do everything in our power to obtain a zero percent tax increase," he said. "I wouldn't bet on it, but I'm going to try."

Throughout the 3 1/2-hour work session, department heads described initiatives for increasing efficiency, including switching from paper to digital parking tickets, consolidating department divisions and using more part-time workers. The town can hire part-timers up to 15 percent of the full-time workforce -- and more if unions agree. The town estimates it is currently at 10 percent.

"We are getting more done with less employees," said Department of Public Works Commissioner Rich Baker, presenting his department's proposed $21.1 million budget -- a 3 percent increase. "We have over 1,200 miles of road. It's a daunting amount of roads to repair on such a small budget."

The budget must be submitted to the town clerk by Sept. 30. The clerk will present the board with the budget Oct. 5 and the board will vote Nov. 10.