Babylon Village Mayor Mary Adams defends proposed 4.9% tax hike

The mayor of Babylon Village, at a hearing Monday on a proposed budget that carries a nearly 5% tax hike, blamed years of no tax increases, deteriorating equipment and lower-than-average staff salaries for what could be a 21% tax jump over a three-year period.

The tax rate for the proposed $15.3 million 2026-27 spending plan would increase 4.9% to $19.84 per $100 of assessed value, up from $18.90 for the current budget, and would exceed the 2.2% state tax cap for the village. According to Village Treasurer Andrew Reichel, homeowners with a $5,000 assessed valuation would see their village taxes increase from $945 to $992.

The village increased taxes by 9.88% for the current budget and by 6.17% the prior year. If this year’s proposed budget gets approved, it would mean a three-year total tax hike of more than 21%.

At a public hearing on the proposed budget Monday night, Mayor Mary Adams pointed to the period between 2016 and 2019 when taxes stayed flat. Adams became a village trustee in 2016 and mayor in 2020.

“Like anything else in a business, if you don’t increase a little, things start to suffer,” she told residents about village equipment.

Adams said she got into a village truck and saw through the floorboard to the pavement.

“There were trucks that we couldn’t use because they couldn’t pass inspection,” she said.

That equipment deterioration is what led in part to the village planning to borrow nearly $9 million this year, Adams said. With another nearly $3 million in bonding a few years ago, the village’s debt service is expected to be more than $228,000 in the proposed budget.

Adams noted that Village Hall windows were so old they had to be opened with crowbars. She also mentioned low salaries for village staff, saying it has led to frequent resignations and that the village is “shorthanded in almost every department” and trying to increase wages.

“This budget was very fair, in the number that we increased,” she said. “It’s things that we don’t have any control over.”

Adams made the comments in response to criticisms voiced by resident Tom Orifici, who said he was “outraged” by the cumulative three-year tax increase.

“If this was a business, it would be bankrupt,” he told the board of trustees. “It seems like everyone is saying, ‘Oh things are out of our hands, we can’t do anything about it.’ I think things have to be taken into your hands and people have to do more with less. That’s what businesses are doing, everybody is doing that.”

According to Reichel, the proposed budget includes increases such as insurance and retirement costs, which are beyond the village’s control. Insurance is projected to rise by $125,000 and retirement costs by $110,000.

Reichel said he expects the village board to vote on the proposed budget later this month.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.