Islip leaders outline major shortfall

An Islip budget task force announced Thursday that the town's projected $26 million shortfall next year was triggered by a down economy and a "lack of financial leadership" by the prior administration.

While former town Supervisor Phil Nolan disputed the findings, the new Republican administration said the dire fiscal forecast would force them to make tough decisions.

Republican Supervisor Tom Croci said it was too soon to say whether the town will propose a tax hike for 2013 or how many employees will face layoffs.

Led by Republican Councilman Steve Flotteron, the task force has been charged with generating solutions for what the board describes as a "structural deficit" in town finances. At a news conference Thursday, the task force showed graphs depicting a gap between mostly stable expenditures and falling revenues across the last five years.

According to the budget review, Islip's general fund balance peaked in 2007 at $75 million and in 2011 was at its lowest in almost 10 years, at $49 million. "The previous town [administration] drew down monies from the general fund to avoid increasing taxes," the document reads.

But Nolan, a Democrat, disputed that claim, saying his administration saved the town $60 million largely via staff reductions and overtime cuts.

"I left Islip Town with a Triple-A bond rating, which was upgraded on my watch," Nolan said by phone Thursday. "I walked out of there with the lowest town taxes on Long Island and the highest bond rating."

A Moody's Investors Services rating update released this month rated Islip's $16.8 million public improvement serial bonds Aa1 but listed its declining general fund and cash reserves as a "challenge" and warned against prolonged use of the town's reserves.

Nolan's last budget earmarked $17 million in spending from reserves.

Charges of "wasteful spending," such as paying $3,500 to have a fleet of town vehicles detailed, were also noted in the task force document. And Flotteron alleged the former administration failed to collect about $1 million in parking tickets.

"It was a lack of management, lack of leadership, lack of keeping their eye on the ball," Flotteron, a board member since 2006, said.

Flotteron voted against the 2012 budget that proposed a zero-percent tax increase in November, when the town board had a Democratic majority. "I'm angered. I knew the numbers didn't add up a lot of times," he said. "We reduced the staff by hundreds of employees, but the expense didn't go down because we had to hire outside contractors."

Republican Councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt, elected to town board in 2010, also voted against the 2012 budget, but she declined to comment further.

Nolan noted that both Flotteron and Bergin declined to offer input on the 2012 budget.