Fire districts fail to file 2% cap report

Fire districts failed to file budgets with the state comptroller’s office, as required by law to assess whether the budgets comply with the new 2 percent state tax cap, the comptroller’s office said.

Of the 497 delinquent districts, 47 are on Long Island.

The new tax cap law requires a municipality to electronically report its tax levy to the comptroller’s office before adopting an annual budget to ensure that calculations used in setting the levy are correct. If a tax levy is adopted in error, any fund collected in excess of the cap must be placed in reserve funds and used only to offset the following year’s tax levy, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said in a news release.

DiNapoli’s office said it sent “warning letters” last week to the fire districts, and some districts have since complied.

Bill Young, attorney for the Association of Fire Districts of the state of New York, called the change in law a “steep learning curve,” and noted districts had to wait until a week before the deadline for information needed from the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

Outstanding districts in Nassau are: Baldwin, Bellerose Terrace, Bethpage, Elmont, Inwood, Lido/Point Lookout, Locust Valley, Manhasset-Lakeville, Meadowmere, North Massapequa, and Roosevelt fire districts, as well as Atlantic Beach, Bay Park, East End Atlantic Beach and Lawrence North fire protection districts.

Outstanding districts in Suffolk are: Amagansett, Bridgehampton, Center Moriches, Centerport, Central Islip, Coram, Dunewood/Lonelyville, East Moriches, Eastport, Gordon Heights, Hampton Bays, Huntington Manor, Kismet, Lake Ronkonkoma, Lakeland, Mastic Beach, Medford, Montauk, Mount Sinai, North Patchogue, North Sea, Orient, Patchogue, Port Jefferson, Sayville, Shelter Island, Southampton, Springs, St. James, West Babylon, West Islip, and Westhampton Beach.