Proposed Shelter Island budget raises spending slightly

Shelter Island Supervisor James Doughtery is proposing a preliminary budget for his town that would increase spending by less than 1 percent.

"Our assessments went down a little. There may be a bit of a tax increase," he said Wednesday.

Shelter Island is so small - the year-round population is only about 2,200 people - that even a small change in the assessed value or outside financial aid can have a noticeable impact on the budget.

Town Assessor Al Hammond said because changes in assessed value lowered the tax base, the current tax rate of 1.9762 per $1,000 of assessed value will go up next year to 2.1794.

But Hammond said because the median value of a home on Shelter Island dropped from $806,000 to $791,000, the actual tax increase on that home in the town part of a tax bill will be only pennies, from the current tax of $1,592.82 to $1,592.99.

Most town budgets in Suffolk were filed by Oct. 1, and Dougherty discussed his budget plan with the town board two weeks ago. Wednesday, a detailed budget breakdown became available. A public hearing on the Shelter Island budget has been set for Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. at town hall.

The supervisor added $42,567 to his proposed 2011 budget, which totals $10,833,370. It calls for $4,988,566 to be raised from local taxes, compared with the $4,971,084 raised from local taxes this year.

State law mandates that a public hearing be set on a proposed town budget by Nov. 4 and requires it be adopted by a town board by Nov. 20. If a town board fails to vote on a budget by that time, the supervisor's proposed budget becomes the budget for 2011.