Patchogue village board approves 2.4% tax rate hike for 2026-27 fiscal year
Mayor Paul Pontieri, seen here last year, blamed the tax hike on "contract-driven" increases in employee pension and health care costs. Credit: Joseph Sperber
Spending boosts for snow removal following a brutal winter, and added costs for state-mandated employee retirement and medical benefits caused Village of Patchogue officials to pass a budget that will pierce the state tax levy cap next year, Mayor Paul Pontieri said.
Property taxes on the average village home will go up 2.4% after the village board voted unanimously to approve a $19.9 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins June 1.
The village pierces the tax cap, usually 2%, most years to keep up with growing expenses, Pontieri said in a phone interview.
The tax rate will go up 2.4%, from $17.71 per $100 of assessed property value to $18.14, village budget documents show.
A homeowner who paid $2,200 in village taxes this year would see their tax bill go up by about $55, to $2,255, deputy village treasurer Joanne Ruggiero said in an email.
Pontieri blamed the tax hike on "contract-driven" increases in employee pension and health care costs.
The new budget increases the village's state retirement contributions for its employees by 15.5%, from $767,500 this year to $886,196 next year, and employee medical plan contributions by 5.6%, from $2.78 million to $2.93 million, village budget documents show. Both costs are mandated by the state.
“We develop a budget based upon need," Pontieri said. "The residents understand small tax increases, as long as you’re paving the streets and taking care of things.”
The village board approved the budget April 13 following a public hearing.
Towns and villages across Long Island have seen double-digit percentage point spikes in employee pension payments in recent years following a change in the way the state calculates the pensions of Tier 6 employees, which includes municipal workers hired after April 1, 2012. The change gives more weight to employees' highest annual salaries as a basis for their pensions, Newsday previously reported.
Meanwhile, municipal medical costs have ballooned after rates for the New York State Health Insurance Plan rose year over year from 2.2% in 2021 to 8.9% in 2024, Newsday has reported.
“Those are huge. Pensions, you have no control over," Pontieri said. "The medical, you have no control over. The things we do have some control [over], we try to control.”
Village trustees increased the snow removal budget by 25%, from $120,000 to $150,000, after a series of winter storms caused the village to blow through the budget, the mayor said.
The village snow budget had already been expended before a Feb. 22 storm dumped 29.1 inches of snow at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma.
“This winter was tough,” Pontieri said, adding there were three separate storms that fell on Sundays, when workers must be paid double their normal hourly wages.
Village employees will be owed a 3% contractual raise next year, Pontieri said.
Salaries for elected officials will remain flat: Pontieri will be paid $12,000, and the village's six trustees will be paid $1,750 each, budget documents show.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.
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