Supervisor’s $91.5 M budget cuts spending, holds tax rate increase to under 1 percent

With no fanfare — not even a press release or formal announcement — Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter delivered his 2015 tentative budget this week. Unlike the past four years, when Walter called council members, department heads and the media together in the Town Hall meeting room for a presentation of his spending plan for the coming year — complete with colorful images in a slideshow presentation — this year, the supervisor simply had his budget posted on the town’s website on Monday, one day before the Sept. 30 deadline.

“We’ve been talking about it so much, I don’t feel a formal presentation to the town board was necessary this year,” Walter said in an interview Friday afternoon.

The supervisor’s tentative budget, which calls for spending of just under $91.5 million, would not require the town to either pierce the state-imposed tax cap or borrow money against the EPCAL property to make ends meet, two measures previously discussed by the board.

The tax levy for the three town-wide funds — the general fund, highway fund and street lighting district — would increase by $831,800, or 2.08 percent.

The tax rate for the three town-wide funds would increase by 28.1 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation — an increase of $14.05 per year for an “average” single family home with an assessed valuation of $50,000.

Walter’s budget estimates revenues of just over $39 million and anticipates using just over $5.5 million in fund balance money — including $2.9 million from the Community Preservation Fund appropriated fund balance, to be used to cover CPF debt service — to help keep the 2015 tax levy under the state limit.

The fund balance won’t be there to help balance the budget in 2016, warned Walter, who had sought board approval for borrowing money against the EPCAL property to help keep the town afloat until lots in a subdivision there can be sold. In August, he said the town would face a 12.5 percent tax hike or have to make “Draconian” budget cuts in order to plug a $4 million deficit.

But Walter ultimately failed to convince board members to authorize the new borrowing — despite their unanimous vote in February to hire the law firm of Harris Beach PLLC to secure the loan from Suffolk County National Bank.

Walter’s prior admonitions notwithstanding, the tentative budget he delivered doesn’t call for either a piercing the tax cap with a double-digit rate hike or taking a loan against the Calverton property.

The plan anticipates entering into leases with two energy companies at the Calverton Enterprise Park — one for a solar energy facility that would bring in revenue of $500,000 and the other for propane storage that would bring in revenue of $250,000, according to the supervisor. Neither deal would require a finalized subdivision, he said; the solar facility is dependent on the selection of the developer by the L.I. Power Authority, a decision that won’t be known until at least December.

The tentative budget also anticipates revenue of more than $600,000 from a county trust fund established under a 1998 law to compensate towns for landfill capping and closing costs. The town also expects a $178,500 increase in its share of the county’s quarter-percent sales tax dedicated to public safety expenses. And it’s drawing down $700,000 in fees paid to store storm-damaged cars on the EPCAL runway following Super Storm Sandy.

On the expense side of the equation, Walter’s budget reduces spending by more than $491,000 through retirement and attrition as well as the elimination of the $118,843 position of longtime planning director Rick Hanley — the sole layoff in his budget proposal. Three of four retiring police officers will be replaced. The fourth, a lieutenant, will not be replaced for now; the cost of paying his accrued sick and leave time exceeds his annual salary, Riverhead financial administrator William Rothaar said. Retiring sanitation supervisor John Reeve, who also runs the municipal garage, would not be replaced, nor would town hall receptionist Verna Campbell. Retiring water district superintendent Gary Pendzick’s post will be filled by his deputy, whose position would remain vacant, Walter said.

The town would hire a part-time cook to replace a retiring full-time employee at the senior center and a part-time planner to supplement remaining full-time staff in the planning department.

The planning department lost one staff member to cuts in 2011 and it stands to lose a second staff member in December when longtime environmental planner Joe Hall retires. Hall’s $104,869 post would not be filled. Instead, Walter said he hopes to cover some of Hall’s duties with a part-time planner who would be paid $30,000 per year. The rest of Hall’s duties would be covered by building and planning administrator Jeff Murphree, the supervisor said.

Under civil service “bump and retreat” rules, Hanley can “bump” the department’s remaining planner, Karen Gluth, from her $86,000 position.

“The only bone of contention in this budget is personnel,” Walter said.

At the board’s last public work session, Councilwoman Jodi Giglio said the board should consider eliminating an accountant position in the finance department.

In a prior interview, Giglio advocated the same move, saying the town does not really need three CPAs in the finance department.

“We need to keep our purse strings tight,” she said in a Sept. 4 interview. “We should not replace any of the retirees. We should promote from within without any pay increase and ask them to bear with us,” she said.

One of the three staff members in the supervisor’s office could be cut, according to Giglio. She suggested merging the town board coordinator with the supervisor’s staff.

During the interview, Giglio also called on fellow board members to take a pay cut.

“I rejected a raise. All my peers cost the town $2,000 a year more than me,” Giglio said.

Council members John Dunleavy and James Wooten both bristled at that suggestion and disputed her contention, each pointing out that the town’s operating budget doesn’t pay their health insurance costs because they are retired cops.

Walter has called a special town board meeting for tomorrow at 10 a.m. to schedule a public hearing on the proposed budget.  Under state law, the town board is required to hold a public hearing on a preliminary budget on or before the Thursday following the general election, which this year is on Nov. 4.  If the town board does not amend the supervisor’s tentative budget prior to the hearing date, it becomes the preliminary budget. State law also requires the town board to adopt a final budget by resolution on or before Nov. 20. The preliminary budget becomes the final budget unless amended by the board by Nov 20.