Glen Cove to hike tax levy by 1.8% amid rising costs

Glen Cove Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck proposed a 2027 budget that raises the property tax levy by 1.8% amid escalating costs, including employee salaries and pension contributions.

The $70.7 million spending plan is a 1.9%, or $1.3 million, increase over this year's budget. The levy change does not exceed the state tax cap, officials said. 

The city is dealing with several fiscal challenges. The state comptroller added Glen Cove back to its fiscal stress list this year, nearly two years after coming off it. The city is dealing with a $3.1 million budget shortfall after, officials said, a new sales tax revenue stream failed to materialize. Moody's, the credit rating agency, also downgraded Glen Cove's bond rating, citing the lack of revenue. The state comptroller's office said the city is "susceptible" to fiscal stress.

"It’s always difficult to construct a budget considering how much is required to upkeep the city, especially contending with significant uncontrollable costs such as employee pension contributions and healthcare costs while still attempting to ensure the fiscal security of our city," Panzenbeck said during a budget presentation on Tuesday.

For a home assessed at $805,000, property taxes will increase by $97.81 annually, or 2.8%, according to budget figures. 

The city’s pension costs are expected to increase more than $861,000 next year. Across Long Island, pension costs are rising amid new contractual sweeteners given to a large tranche of the state’s workforce. Salaries are also projected to rise by nearly $1.3 million.

Next year's budget draws on nearly $3.2 million in sales tax revenue.

In July 2025, the city council voted to preempt sales taxes. That move would have allowed the city to directly collect 1.5% of sales tax generated within the city. It shifted from the longstanding arrangement in which the county collected that total and distributed funds to the city in the form of a property tax credit.

While the 2025 budget projected $3.1 million in sales tax revenue, the county didn’t grant a waiver for the change to take effect in time. That left the city with a revenue gap in the 2026 budget. The sales tax pre-emption will take effect next March, according to a letter Newsday obtained from the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

Glen Cove expects the building department to generate $1.5 million in permit revenue in 2027. The 2026 budget anticipated $1.4 million in building department revenue, but $240,000 has been collected through Sept. 10, according to city budget documents. 

Some of the building fees in this year's budget haven't come to fruition, as of the beginning of September. But Piccirillo said in an email the city is "expecting additional revenues by the end of year."

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ

Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the city of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance.