New Hyde Park fund balance larger than last year

Heading into budget talks, the Village of New Hyde Park announced it has a larger fund balance than it had last year: “a seven-week cushion,” as Mayor Daniel Petruccio described it.

The fund balance for the year ending May 31, 2012, was $788,669, up from about $451,394 the year before. Revenue for the year totaled $5.7 million, village officials said.

Petruccio said the village saved by spending 95 percent of what was budgeted for the fiscal year.

The last three years have involved “scary” increases in pension costs, said Petruccio, who is retiring in March.

He singled out rising pension and health insurance costs as major uncertainties in determining the future budget.

Petruccio said the village was issued a “clean bill of health” from an outside auditor, the Mineola accounting firm Rynkar, Vail, and Barrett.

Budget talks will begin in earnest in February, the village said, with a hearing set for April 2.