Islip officials vote no on proposed 2026 town budget

Islip officials on Thursday voted against adopting the proposed 2026 town budget, which would boost town taxes by $73 for the average household and require Islip to pierce the state tax cap with an 8% levy increase.

The proposed budget and tax hikes are far from dead, however. The spending proposal will automatically be adopted unless Islip’s five-member town board approves an alternative budget within two weeks, according to state law.

The current proposal includes $289 million in spending, which is an increase of about $10.5 million compared to 2025. The plan calls for Islip to pierce its 2.1% tax cap by about $8.8 million, roughly half of which is due to new employee union contracts, according to town Comptroller Joseph Ludwig. 

Islip’s town board voted unanimously to approve those union contracts and allow the town to pierce its tax cap but declined to approve the actual budget in a 3-2 vote.

Councilmen Michael McElwee, John Lorenzo and Jorge Guadrón — a Republican, Conservative and Democrat, respectively — voted against the budget. Councilman James O’Connor and Supervisor Angie Carpenter, both Republicans, voted for the measure.

O’Connor texted Newsday that he “hated everything about” the proposed budget, but “today’s budget vote was purely ceremonial” because of the state-imposed Nov. 20 deadline.

“Anyone who voted against the budget without offering substantive amendments was grandstanding. I chose governing over grandstanding,” O’Connor wrote.

He added that he’s “offered multiple draconian amendments [that] would have eased the pain on the Islip taxpayer, but it would have cut deep into town operations. I was never able to get support from my colleagues.”

Guadrón, who has not yet proposed changes to the budget, texted Newsday saying the plan was the “supervisor’s budget. The entire town board of Islip was not included in the process.”

He added that “between now and Nov. 19, I want to keep all options open for discussion in an attempt to keep property taxes low.”

The preliminary budget was first put forward by Ludwig on Sept. 16. During that meeting, every town board member except for Carpenter declined to set a budget hearing because they hadn’t received a copy of the budget ahead of time.

Carpenter and McElwee did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lorenzo declined to comment.

Islip’s town board is scheduled to meet again on Nov. 18. Unless the board approves a revised budget, the proposed spending plan will automatically be adopted two days after that meeting, and this would be the second year in a row that the budget would pierce the tax cap.

“You guys have a daunting task in front of you today dealing with this operational budget because there is a significant increase in expenses in relation to piercing the tax cap,” Ludwig told the town board Thursday. “That is really the driving factor behind the 2026 operational budget.”

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.