Southampton supe IDs areas for improvement

Fourteen months after taking office, and after the results of a state audit found dozens of areas of deficiencies, Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said Friday that the town "has turned a most significant corner" in implementing policies and cutting back the cost of government.

"We are a leaner town government, a more fiscally sound one, and a more financially responsible organization than we were a year ago," she said in her quarterly state of the town address.

To an overflowing crowd of community members, media and town employees at Town Hall, Throne-Holst, an Independent, emphasized improvements in six major areas: revamped policies with an emphasis on planning and analysis; energy conservation initiatives; improved labor relations; commitment to better thought-out land use; affordable housing; and expanded community volunteerism.

Throne-Holst said that though the town's debt still stands at $6.5 million and needs to be reduced, at the end of 2010 the town's department funds had surpluses.

While some parts of the state audit's corrective action plan still need to be addressed, policies put in place resolved most of them, she said. Throne-Holst was a councilwoman in 2009 when the board voted to request the audit from the state after it wasn't clear how much debt the town had incurred over past years. In her address, the supervisor said that in 2010 there was more than $1 million in improved fund balances. Taxes this year were cut by .083 percent.

"Every stone that needed to be turned over has been turned over," Throne-Holst said after the address.

Republican Rep. Christopher Nuzzi said he was surprised the supervisor declared the town's finances were in good shape since she had proposed a larger budget than what was adopted by the Republicans and conservatives on the board.Throne-Holst will head to Albany tomorrowon Monday to speak with representatives from the Office of Real Property Tax Services about options to the town's annual assessment system, after the state cut $200,000 in funding for the process. She will also address what she called inequities in the amount of school taxes paid by Southampton residents in districts that bleed into other townships, such as Brookhaven and Riverhead.