Islip's $289 million budget passes by default after board fails to approve it

Islip Town tax bills will increase $73 for the average household next year after board members failed to adopt a spending plan in time, ensuring it passed by default.

The $289 million budget, which exceeds the state tax cap, represents a $10.5 million increase over the 2025 plan. It requires Islip to raise the tax levy roughly $8.8 million, marking the second year in a row Islip has exceeded the limit. The last time the town pierced the cap was in the 2017 budget.

Islip’s town board voted 4-1 against scheduling a budget hearing on Sept. 16. On Nov. 6, a vote to approve the budget failed, with two members voting for it and three opposed.

Officials did not consider adopting a budget at the Nov. 18 town board meeting. They instead allowed the state’s Nov. 20 budget deadline to pass without taking action.

“Nobody offered any amendments,” said Republican councilman James O’Connor, who voted with Republican Supervisor Angie Carpenter to adopt the budget on Nov. 6. “Given no alternative, I thought the only responsible thing to do from a governing standpoint was to vote for the proposed budget. Anything else would be grandstanding.”

Town Comptroller Joseph Ludwig has cited budgetary pressures as a driving force behind the tax increases, including prospective new union contracts. He’s also cited declines in interest rate revenue, as well as increases in health care and pension costs.

Both O’Connor and Carpenter contend Islip faced a difficult calculus, one that pitted tax increases against laying off 60 staffers or making other deep cuts into town operations.

The officials who voted against the budget on Nov. 6 — Democrat Jorge Guadron, Conservative John Lorenzo and Republican Michael McElwee — did not respond to requests for comment about why, according to O’Connor, they never offered changes to the budget.

 Guadron told Newsday at the time the “entire town board of Islip was not included in the process.”

Lorenzo and McElwee did not comment on their decision to vote against the budget earlier this month.

Now that the 2026 spending plan is locked in, the average Islip homeowner can expect to spend $771.65 in town taxes next year, up from $698.88 in 2025.

By Sam Kmack

sam.kmack@newsday.com

Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.