Rockville Centre approves $40.8M budget

The Rockville Centre Village board voted to give itself the authority to exceed the state’s 2 percent tax levy cap, then adopted a $40.8 million budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year that begins June 1.

At a special budget meeting Tuesday night, the village board voted, 5-0, to override the tax cap.

The budget passed by a vote of 3-2, with Mayor Francis X. Murray, Deputy Mayor Nancy Howard and trustee Michael Sepe voting in favor. Trustees Kevin Glynn and Edward Oppenheimer voted against passing the budget.

About $23,000 had been shaved from the tentative budget. The approved budget reduced the proposed property tax levy increase from 5.8 percent to 5.5 percent.

The tax rate declined from the proposed $42.22 to the approved rate of $42.14 per $100 of assessed valuation, a 6.76 percent increase above the current tax rate, instead of the proposed 6.97 percent increase.

The adjustment will produce an average village residential real estate tax bill of $3,266.69, a $207 increase over last year. The reductions came from small cuts in many departments, village officials said.

A copy of the approved budget is available during regular office hours at the village clerk’s office and online at www.rvcny.us.