Patchogue approves 5.5 percent tax hike

Patchogue Village’s Board of Trustees approved a 2011-12 budget that will raise property taxes by 5.5 percent, or $78 for the owner of an average home in the village.

The village’s budget grew from $10.8 million this year to $11.9 million. The owner of an average home paid about $1,400 in village taxes this year, Mayor Paul V. Pontieri Jr. said.

Pontieri said increases in medical and pension costs for village workers account for most of the budget increase. Nearby Bellport and other villages have cited the same factors driving tax increases.

The medical and pension costs added more than $300,000 to the budget, Pontieri said, even as revenue from mortgage taxes has fallen from $383,000 in 2007 to $111,000 this year.

“I think the budget is as tight as you are going to get without wholesale slashing of recreation programs,” he said.

The trustees voted unanimously at a Monday night hearing to approve the budget and tax increase.

Pontieri said officials had managed to scale back the first budget proposal, which would have called for a tax increase of about $100.